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ELECTRODYNAMIC WAVE -THEORY OF
PHYSICAL FORCES

VOLUME I

BULLETINS 1 to 6 INCLUSIVE

ANNOUNCING THE DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM, OF ELECTRODYNAMIC ACTION.

AND OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION. WITH PROOF THAT THESE FUNDAMENTAL FOBCBS OF NATURE ABE D"DE
TO THE INTEBPENETBATION OF WAVES PBOPAGATED WITH THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT THROUGH THE FREE
ABTHEB, BUT MORE SLOWLT THBOUGH THE SOLID MASSES, WHENCE ABISES ALSO THE BEFRACTION, DIS-
PEBSION AND PERHAPS ABSORPTION OF PART OF THE WAVE ENBBGT, AND THUS THE HITHERTO UNEX-
PLAINED FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON's MEAN MOTION ESTABLISHED BY NEWCOMB IN 1909. AND
JUSTLY PRONOUNCED THE MOST ENIGMATICAL PHENOMENON PRESENTED BY THE CELESTIAL MOTIONS.

BY
T. J. J. SEE,
A. M., Lt. M., Sc. M. (Missou.); A. M., Ph. D. (Berol.);

Professor of Mathematics, U. S. Navy, Formerly in Charge of the 26-Inch Equatorial Telescope of the U. S. Naval Obser-
vatory, Washington, D.C, More Recently in Charge of the U. S. Naval Observatory, Mare Island, California; Fellow of
the Royal Astronomical Society; Mitglied der Astronomischen Gesellschaft; Member of the London Mathematical
Society; American Mathematical Society; Deutsche Mathematiker Vereinigung; SocieteMathematiquede France;
Circolo Mathematico di Palermo; Calcutta Mathematical Society; American Philosophical Society held at
Philadelphia; Washington Academy of Sciences; Philosophical Society of Washington; Academy of
Sciences of St. Louis; American Physical Society; Societe Francaise de Physique; Fellow of the Amer-
ican and British Associations for the Advancement of Science; Member of the British Astronom-
ical Association; Societe Astronomique de France; Astronomical Society of the Pacific;
California Academy of Sciences; Seismological Society of America; National Geograph-
ical Society; Honorary Member of Accademia di Scienze Lettere ed Arti de' Zelanti
di Aci-Reale, Sicily; Sociedad Astronomica de Mexico; etc.. Author of Researches
ON THE Evolution of the Stellar Systems, Vol. I. 1896, Vol. II, 1910, and of
other Investigations in Theoretical and Practical Astronomy, and of
Five Memoirs on the New Theory of Earthquakes, Mountain Forma-
tion and Kindred Phenomena Connected with the Physics of the
Earth, Published in the Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia, 1906-13; and
OF THE Discovery of the Physical Cause of the
Terrestrial Land and Ocean Hemispheres, 1916.

O ®eos del yew/xeVpet — Plaio.

1917

THOS. P. NICHOLS & SON CO., Lynn, Mass., U.S.A.

WM. WESLEY & SON, London A. HERMANN ET FILS, Paris

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY

T. J. J. SEE
 DEDICATED

TO THE MEMORY OF MY REVERED MASTER

Dr. GEORGE WILLIAM HILL

Most Illustrious of Astronomical Geometers

WHO DID not hesitate TO DEPART FROM BEATEN PATHS,

AND IN ORDER TO PRESERVE HIS INDEPENDENCE EVEN PUBLISHED

AT HIS OWN EXPENSE THE IMMORTAL

RESEARCHES IN THE LUNAR THEORY, 1877.

 CONTENTS

Dedication iii

Introduction by the Author vii

BULLETIN No. 1

Announcement of Two Important Astronomical Discoveries . . 1

I The Physical Cause of the Hitherto Unexplained Fluctuations in the

Moon's Mean Motion, Dec. 10, 1916.

II The Physical Cause of Universal Gravitation, 1914-17.

BULLETIN No. 2
Discovery of the Physical Cause of Magnetism .... 9

BULLETIN No. 3
Discoveries in Cosmical Magnetism 33

BULLETIN No. 4
Theory of the Transmission of Physical Forces, Based on the
Propagation of Electrodynamic Waves in Right Lines or in
Curves Conforming to Fermat's Law of Minimum Path and
THE Principle of Least Action 57

BULLETIN No. 5
Theory of the Fluctuations of the Moon's Mean Motion Deduced
from Phenomena: Results Explained by the Refraction, Dis-
persion AND Perhaps Absorption of Part of the Sun's Elec-
trodynamic Wave Energy in Propagation Through the Earth. 97

BULLETIN No. 6
Definite Confirmation of the Discovery op the Physical Cause of
Universal Gravitation 127
 INTRODUCTION

The Science of Astronomy is essentially one of Geometry on a great scale.

It consists in the tracing out of regular orbits from exact observations, the deduc-
tion of the masses under whose central forces the orbits are described, and the
calculation of the perturbations to which these principal motions may be sub-
jected. Cosmogony goes further yet, and attempts to discover the foundations
of the permanent Geometry of the Heavens. It explains the gradual origin of

the system of the world through excessively slow Processes of Capture known to
be going on in Nature, and made possible by the primordial diffusion of Cosmical
Dust under the action of repulsive forces for the formation of nebulae in the vacant
regions of starless space.
Both Astronomy and Cosmogony thus require an insight into the physical
cause which underlies the observed central forces. This primordial agency, com-
bined with the Process of Capture, in the course of millions of ages, has established
the recognized order of the heavens. The astronomer therefore labors to throw
light on the Cause of Universal Gravitation, so as to find out whether the received
Law of Newton is rigorously exact, and wiU hold true for all time, or only a close

approximation which may give rise to no large errors of calculation inside of sev-
eral centuries.

Sir Isaac Newton himself was greatly occupied with these questions, while
composing the Principia, 1687, and not very much additional light has been shed on
them since, because the Cause of Universal Gravitation has remained as completely
hidden from our view as in the days of the formulation of the Law of Gravitation.
Notwithstanding this long Stationary Period, the time has now come for a great
and significant advance, we can correctly make out the nature of the physical
if

forces governing the Universe by connecting them with Magnetism, which is

simpler and more easily understood.
Forty years have now elapsed since the writer's attention was attracted to the
Physical Cause of Universal Gravitation as a problem awaiting investigation.
The central force which governs the motion of the Moon came under special con-
sideration in 1881, and in 1882 the Transit of Venus and the Great Comet which
passed so near the Sun, and for months remained visible in the morning sky tiU
about sunrise, gave these early studies a more definite direction. Yet the solu-

tion of the problem still appeared remote, and for a third of a century, indeed,
it was not forthcoming, so that heretofore nothing has been published bearing

on the subject.
(vii)
VIU INTEODUCTION

But in April, 1914, a mode of attacking this baffling problem, through the
related phenomenon of Magnetism, finally presented itseK; and there seemed
to be a reasonable hope that if the nature of Magnetism could be clearly made
out, the physical cause of Universal Gravitation also could be established.
During the past three years much attention has been given to the subject,
with the result that the problem of Magnetism now seems to be solved in
so clear and simple a manner that little remains to be desired in the way of
improvement.
The discovery of a Physical Mechanism, conformable to the well established
laws of Dynamics, by which stresses in the medium can be exerted across space, so

as to give physical forces acting in right lines, when the transmission is through

the free Mther, has been a most urgent desideratum of Science for many centuries.

Up to very recent times, however, such a mechanism had not been disclosed.
For in an Address on the "iEther of Space," at Bedford College, England, in
February, 1914, Sir Oliver Lodge, declared that there is a mysterious force, which
he did not understand in the least, the force of gravity. It puts the force of cohesion

absolutely to shame. This force of gravity binds the Cosmos together. It must be
transmitted by the Mther, but as there is no mechanical connection between Mther
and Matter, the nature of the attractive process has not been made out, though Sir
Oliver believed it to be electrical.

Now whatever shades of opinion may develop among natural philosophers

as to the details of the processes disclosed in these Bulletins, it cannot, I think,
be denied that Electrodynamic Waves will explain Magnetic, Electrodynamic
and Gravitational Attraction, in accordance with the definitely established Laws
of Nature. The historical difficulty of finding a physical mechanism between
bodies under which they will mutually attract, owing to the interpenetration of
waves changing the separate stresses and thus generating forces pulling in straight
lines, seems therefore to be overcome.
The Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Universal Gravitation is a necessary
consequence of the discovery of the Physical Cause of Magnetism. For some
time, it has seemed to me that there could be no mode of attacking the problem
of Gravitation except through the more familiar attraction of Magnetism; and
the line of reasoning here adopted has therefore been based on the laws of wave
action shown to be operative in Electrodynamics.
The explanation of Magnetic and of Gravitational Attraction now put forth
has the indispensable merit of simplicity and of conformity to Faraday's great
experimental discovery that all bodies are magnetic. The magnetism of all
matter means, in other words, that it was shown by Faraday's careful Laboratory
 INTRODUCTION IX

Experiments that all bodies emit waves which may be more or less coerced into paral-
lelism by the action of suitable electric currents.

This comprehensive Electrodynamic Wave-Theory obviously is sufficient

to account for the phenomena of Universal Gravitation, and it has the additional
advantage of illustrating clearly the unity and correlation of aU the forces of
Nature, with which Faraday had become so deeply impressed. Whether the
Electrodynamic Wave-Theory also fulfills the necessary condition of being the
only possible explanation of gravitation is a question which may be fairly left to
the judgment of the reader.
The Archimedes and of Newton naturally explain
philosophic methods of
Gravitational Attraction by the same mechanism which accounts for Magnetic
Attraction; and as this Electrodynamic Wave-Theory seems definitely established
by the rigorous geometrical and physical conditions fulfilled by the forces pro-
ducing the Lunar Fluctuations natural philosophers doubtless will hold that it
is also the only possible Theory of Gravitation.
It seems certain that no other theory will explain the Attraction operating

between bodies, which we ascribe to forces pulling in right lines. Such tension
in the medium becomes a maximum directly between the masses, because along these

connecting right lines the oppositely directed waves always mutually interpenetrate
with double the velocity of Light, thus putting the medium under extraordinary tension,
like that of a stretched mass of India rubber.
Heretofore, no such natural mechanism as is now outlined has been known
to the investigator. And from the author's studies of the rigorous geometrical
and physical conditions fulfilled by the forces producing the Lunar Fluctuations
he believes that no explanation other than that now offered is mathematically
possible; so that the Lunar Fluctuations appear to constitute an observational
experimentum crucis of the physical cause underlying Universal Gravitation.
The discovery of the physical cause of the hitherto Unexplained Fluctuations

of theMoon's Mean Motion has therefore confirmed the Electrodynamic Wave-

Theory of Gravitation, and given this theory both a mathematical and physical
basis, which will, I think, deserve the earnest consideration of natural philosophers.
Accordingly there results the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Magnetism,
of Electrodynamic Action, and of Universal Gravitation, with proof that these
Fundamental Forces of Nature are due to waves propagated with the velocity
of Light through the free ^ther, but more slowly through solid masses — whence
arises also Refraction, Dispersion, and perhaps Absorption of part of the wave-
energy, and thus the hitherto Unexplained Fluctuations of the Moon's Mean
Motion.
X INTRODUCTION

The Lunar by Newcomb were justly regarded as

Fluctuations discovered
the most enigmatical phenomenon presented by the Celestial Motions. It
is remarkable that they now become an experimentum cruets for establish-
ing the undulatory nature of Gravitation, owing to the perturbative effects

actually observed to be exerted upon the Moon when near the shadow of the
Earth.
The Greek astronomer Hipparchus initiated the investigation of the Lunar
Inequalities through the study of the Evection, about 140 B.C., but left it to be
more fuUy worked out by Ptolemy some 300 years later. After steady progress
extending over 2000 years and culminating in the recent exhaustive researches
of Professor E. W. Brown, the Lunar Theory was almost perfected, — when at
last the cause of the Lunar Fluctuations unexpectedly comes to light, and every
sensible Inequality in the Motion of the Moon thus finally disappears!
These results are of no small interest, and I gladly would have offered them
to one of the numerous Learned Societies which exist for the promotion of Science.
Several of the foremost mathematicians of Europe and America have generously
urged this course, and laid me under lasting obligations for their kindness. But
there are too many well known instances of discoveries being misunderstood to
justify the belief that the reception accorded to such new work would be suffi-

ciently favorable to ensure its prompt publication by conservative committees

having no part in its development. It is a somewhat melancholy reflection, but
one quite justified by History, that it is chiefly individual discoverers who have
the vision to perceive and the moral courage to support new Truth in advance
of its triumph.
For example, it is well known that the Royal Society delayed unduly and
thereby evaded the publication of Newton's Principia, 1686; and to prevent
the loss of the work Halley had to print at his private expense the most immortal
production of the human intellect.

Some things even worse than the smothering of priceless discoveries occasion-
ally occur; for in his History of Astronomy, Laplace gives an account of the per-

secution of Anaxagoras, at Athens, and justly observes: "To estabUsh itself

on earth, Truth has often had to combat accredited errors, which more than once
has proved fatal to those who have discovered it."

In the well known case of Galileo the discoveries which he made and promul-
gated did not quite prove fatal, indeed, yet this first philosopher of Europe, in a
blind old age, after a laborious life devoted to the founding of Modern Science,
was thrown into prison, because he persisted in publishing the discoveries which
established the Copemican System of the world.
 INTRODUCTION XI

Laplace comments on the difficulties of Kepler as follows: "With so many

claims to admiration this great man lived in misery, while judicial Astrology,
everywhere honored, was magnificently recompensed. Fortunately, the enjoy-
ment which a man of genius receives from the truths which he discovers, and the
prospect of a just and grateful posterity, console him for the ingratitude of his
. '
contemporaries
Thus the labor of the discoverer always is unduly increased, yet the investigator
who succeeds, — simply because he is a labor-loving and truth-loving man,

such as HiPPARCHUs was, according to the description given by Ptolemy in the

Almagest, Lib. Ill, Ch. I, — is not without the noblest of rewards. And such a
true discoverer naturally is unwilling to condescend to secure publication of his
priceless treasures.

As is weU known, in past struggles for new ideas I have often stood entirely
alone; I can again do so, cheerful and hopeful of the ultimate triumph of reason
and justice. It took the Capture Theory of Cosmogony eight years to triumph
in some unprogressive countries, yet that period is short in the long History of

Astronomy.
be those who hesitate to welcome the present results on the nature
If the];e

and mode of propagation of Physical Forces, let us hope that they will not lay
themselves open to the grave charge that there are none so blind as those who
do not wish to see. Galileo has related how certain learned professors in Padua
refused to look through the newly-invented Telescope lest they see Jupiter's sat-
ellites, and thus be compelled to admit the truth of his discovery. Unjust criticism
is not only useless, but philosophically beneath contempt. He who is deserving
of the name of natural philosopher shows a genuine interest in Truth, and labors
to make it more accessible to those worthy to take part in such studies. That moral
integrity is a prerequisite to the successful cultivation of Science is impressively
emphasized by Plato {Republic, Book VII, §535 of Jowett's Translation), and
specifically stated by Apollonius of Perga in his second letter to Eudemus.

It is conceded that very little progress in regard to the Cause of Universal

Gravitation has been made during the past 250 years. As the laws of Electro-
dynamic Action were quite unknown in the time of Newton, that great philos-
opher naturally was unable to solve the problem; yet this is no reason why we
should idly fold our hands today and ignore aU the progress made since the time
of Ampere. We should rather assume the responsibility of leadership in the new
advance which is demanded by the state of Science in our time.
XU INTRODUCTION

Probably the present work could have been somewhat improved by still fur-

ther delay in publication; but I deemed this course unjust to contemporary in-

vestigators, and will cheerfully take the blame for any incompleteness in the
present development. It is only by the united efforts of many minds that a new
subject may be rounded out in all its aspects. In the course of this thorough
test the discoverer himself must make many sacrifices.

In the first instance, he has the choice, on the one hand, between following
the beaten path, which is the course of least resistance, — safe and conservative,
yet involves no step forward; and of opening a new path, on the other, which
may lead through thorns and underbrush, and caU for the energy and force of
character appropriate to the pioneer. Enormous are the difficulties of the ex-
plorer, but great also may be the reward of his daring courage!
In the contemplation of the world the philosopher finds that wonders are
many, and thus he never ceases to marvel at the mysteries of Nature disclosed
to his searching vision. Yet sublime as are the wonders opened to us in the past,
it seems that they are as nothing compared to the unseen but stupendous power

operative in the process of Universal Gravitation. This power results from the
interpenetration of waves traveling from aU bodies with the Velocity of Light and
by decreasing the stress in the ^Ether between them thus generating the
tre-

mendous physical forces required for holding the planets in their orbits
Lest we forget the stupendous power of Gravitation, in terms of the Strength
of Steel, we may recall two instances of the mighty forces now traced to the inter-
penetration of Electrodynamic Waves traveling with the Velocity of Light:

1. In the JEther of Space, 1909, pp. 112-126, Sir Oliver Lodge shows from
the recognized laws of Dynamics that the pull of the Earth on the Moon is equiva-
lent to the breaking strength of a steel column 400 miles in diameter, or of a forest

of five million million weightless pillars each a square foot in cross section — the
tenacity of the steel being thirty tons to the square inch.

2. In the same way Sir Oliver Lodge shows (p. 130) that the pull of the

Sun on the Earth is equivalent to the tenacity of a forest of weightless steel pillars
each eleven inches in diameter, acting on every square foot of a hemispherical
section of the globe — the steel again having the breaking strength of thirty tons
to the square inch.
To inquire into the unseen mechanism for producing these wonderful forces

would have appealed to the genius of Archimedes or of Newton! No physical

problem could be more worthy of the meditation of the natural philosopher!
 INTEODUCTION XIU

With uncovered heads we stand in silent awe at the amazing mysteries un-
folded to our contemplation! The curtain of the ages never before was thus
parted to open such a vision to the human mind! The revelation of the previously
unseen mechanism of the physical world must be pronounced, in Sophoclean
phrase, beyond mortals wonderful!
It may not be inappropriate to point out a certain Analogy between the
Infinite Series of Higher Analysis, so well known to the geometer, and indispensable
to the numerical evaluation of the curves traced by the heavenly bodies in their
motions and mutual perturbations; and the Eledrodynamic Waves which by
mutual interpenetration generate the forces for holding the planets in their orbits
and thus cause the phenomenon of Universal Gravitation.

The Series of Analysis represent numerical oscillations by which finite and

definite values of transcendental functions may be approximated; the Electro-
djoiamic Waves are the physical oscillations for generating the corresponding
continuous forces under which the heavenly bodies describe the higher curves
recognized in the Geometry of the Heavens. If the nature of Series has been
mysterious to the geometer, so also are the Waves to the natural philosopher;
yet with this Analogy before us the problem of the philosopher is somewhat illum-
inated by the close correspondence and unbroken continuity shown to pervade
the order of Nature.
The author is much indebted to his former Secretary, Mr. D. R. Adams, for
efl&cient service in preparing the first outline of the Electrodynamic Wave-
Theory, 1914; and to Mr. Joseph Pedeoni, his present Secretary, for a like service

in completing this Volume, 1916-17.

But of aU those who have contributed to the entire development I owe most
to Mrs. See, for steadfast support and patient interest in a labor presenting many
difl&culties. It is not yet quite finished, it is true, but with the appearance of the
present Volume the ultimate triumph of these discoveries seems fully assured;
and when the significance of the advance made comes to be appreciated, it wiU
be only right that those who aided in overcoming almost insurmountable obstacles,
in a period of universal distress and world darkness, should be gratefully remem-
bered as bearers of the Light,

T. J. J. SEE.

Starlight on Lontre,
Montgomery City, Missouri,
September 19, 1917.
ELECTEODYIAMIC WAYE-THEOBY OF PHYSICAL
FOECES

BULLETINS
I, II, III, IV, V, VI
 RESULTS OF RESEARCHES
ON THE

ELECTRODYNAMIC WAVE-THEORY OF PHYSICAL FORCES

BULLETIN NO. 1

ANNOUNCEMENT OF
TWO IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES:
I. The Physical Cause of the Hitherto Unexplained Fluctuations
IN THE Moon's Mean Motion, Dec. 10, 1916.

II, The Physical Cause of Universal Gravitation, 1914-17.

By T. J. J. SEE

After most thorough investigation, — including the independent confirma-

tion of the results from both the mathematical and physical points of view, as
well as by comparison of the new Physical Theory with the observed Fluctuations,
which are the outstanding differences between pure Gravitational Theory and
actual observation of the Moon's Mean Motion, as set forth by Newcomb, 1909
—
the author of this Bulletin announces that on December 10, 1916, he was able
to discover the Physical Cause of the hitherto Unexplained Fluctuations in the
Moon's Mean Motion.
This discovery will prove to be remarkable afs reveahng the existence of a

New Type of Long Inequahty in the Theories of the Celestial Motions. These
Inequahties depend on the Electrodynamic Nature of Gravitation, and may

occasionally become sensible to observation, but heretofore their existence has

scarcely been suspected and never considered probable.

The Simon Newcomb regarded the Unexplained Fluctuations
late Professor

in the Moon's Mean Motion as the most enigmatical phenomenon presented by

the celestial motions, and thus the discovery of the cause of these perplexing in-
equalities will no doubt occasion surprise among investigators.
There naturally

will be curiosity to know in what way the discovery was made.

Unfortunately, owing to the serious problem of publication for new work,
processes of investigation.
it is not practicable at present to give details of the
I ANNOUNCEMENT OF TWO IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES

The results here set forth, however, will leave no doubt of the rigor of the indi-
cated laws of the Moon's Mean Motion.
In explanation of this statement it remains to add that the discovery of the
Cause of the Moon's Fluctuations was made in the extension of researches on the
Cause of Universal Gravitation, with which the author has never ceased to be
occupied since 1881, and first had his attention directed to in 1878. It is well
known that in April, 1892, he had the honor of discussing the Cause of Gravita-
tion in some detail with Professor Sir George Darwin on the occasion of a visit
to this eminent mathematician at Cambridge.
In spite of all the attention previously given to the subject no conclusion
could be reached at that time; and although the problem was kept steadily in

view it was twenty-two years later, April, 1914, before any definite promise of a
solution opened up. Even then the greater part of the spare moments of the
past three years had to be given to perfecting the development of the new Elec-
trodynamic Wave-Theory.
Early in 1915 a first outline of the work on the Cause of Gravitation was sent
to one of the oldest and most celebrated of the Scientific Societies of Europe.
Although not published, it seems to have been given much consideration, and in
spite of the evidence that it was not fully understood, was found worth filing away
in the Archives for future reference. New conceptions seldom are welcomed at
first, and besides the conditions in Europe during the past three years have been
little suited to philosophic contemplation.

The researches on the Cause of Gravitation necessarily have extended over

all the related investigations of the past two hundred fifty years, and thus cov-
ered a very wide field. Accordingly they cannot be adequately described in a
Bulletin, and it is deemed best to defer details of the new Electrodynamic Wave-
Theory, in the hope that before many years the work may be brought out as a
whole. The intervening time may be utilized for additional researches, and for

the preparation and publication of the results. But as the Cause of Gravitation

seems clearly and definitely made out, and confirmed by the discovery of the
cause of the hitherto V^iexplained Fluctuations in the Moon's Mean Motion, it

appears advisable to announce also this discovery in the present Bulletin.

The first outline of the Electrodynamic Theory, ascribing the stresses for

transmitting forces across space to wave action, in an unpubhshed Manuscript,

570 pages, December 10, 1914, bears the title: "Electrodynamic Theory of Mag-
netism and of Universal Gravitation: Discovery of the Cause of Gravitation,
with proof that this Fundamental Force of Nature is proi^agated with the velocity
of Light."
 ANNOUNCEMENT OP TWO IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES 3

Weber's Fundamental Electrodynamic Law of 1846 is shown to be the Law

of Nature. Thus the formula of Weber

where m and m' are the masses, r the distance, and c the velocity of transmission
for the wave action, reduces to Newton's Law of 1686

„ _ mm'

U/T d T
when the orbit is circular, so that j; = >
im
~ ^ ' ^^^ there is no relative

motion between the bodies of the system.

phenomena of Terrestrial Magnetism are explained, including

All the periodic
Earth Currents, Auroras, "Magnetic Storms," and the dependence of "Mag-
netic Storms" on the sun spot cycle, and a connection is shown to exist between
the Magnetism of the Earth and the Electrodynamic Forces which control the
motions of the Planets in their orbits.

Within the past few years Professor Einstein, who had previously failed to

connect Gravitation with Electrodynamics, has published a Relativity Theory

for explaining the true law of Gravitation, including the motion of Mercury's
Perihelion, etc.; but so far as I know he makes no attempt to assign the Cause

of Gravitation. Indeed, under Einstein's vague and chimerical theory, Gravity

is not a "force," but "a property of space!" This Relativity Theory of Einstein
has appealed to some English mathematicians, but they evidently are misled by de-
ceptive analysis, and reasoning on false premises, as so frequently happens when
appropriate physical conditions are overlooked.
The present author has now shown that at least half a dozen different ex-
planations of the motion of Mercury's perihelion are possible. Any one of them
a priori is admissible, yet not one of them
by the necessary and
is established

sufficient conditions required to make a conclusive argument. Moreover each

of these independent explanations may be varied and combined with the others,

so as to multiply indefinitely the possible solutions. The motion oi Mercury's

perihelion is therefore in no way decisive for or against any theory of Gravitation _

The Fluctuations of the Moon's Mean Motion, on the other hand, have been
generally regarded as essentially incapable of theoretical explanation. In 1909
Professor Newcomb wrote: "I regard these fluctuations as the most enigmatical
phenomenon presented by the celestial motions, being so difficult to account for
4 ANNOUNCEMENT OF TWO IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOATERIES

by the action of any known causes, that we cannot but suspect them to arise from
some action in nature hitherto unknown" (Monthly Notices, January, 1909).
This prediction was verified through the discovery of a cause not hitherto
suspected, comiected with the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Gravitation, by
which alone the present author was able to solve the mystery of the Moon's
Fluctuations.

The accompanying table and plate illustrates the completeness of the new
physical theory.

It seems quite evident that no outstanding fluctuation now remains in the

Moon's motion in excess of 1".0; for the average residual shown for the past
eighty years is about 0".70, and on that basis we know from the theory of prob-
ability that a periodic inequality of 1".0 cannot remain undetected in the Moon's
Mean Motion.
This quantity is so small as to be near the limit of vision with a 6-inch tele-
scope such as a transit circle. Thus it appears that on the basis of true physical
theory, resulting from the extension of the work on Gravitation, I have been able
to improve the accuracy of the Moon's predicted mean longitude at least a dozen

fold.

There are in all three hitherto undiscovered terms of sensible magnitude in the

Moon's Mean Motion as follows:

1. The SJiort Period Fluctuation, recurring in 18.0293 years, with a coefficient

of 1".0:

ALi = 1".0 sin 119°.9675 {t - 1800.0) -|-239°.42S ... (1)

2. The Large Fluctuation of 61.7006 years' period, with coefficient of 3".0,

and having an exceedingly close resemblance to the Great Inequality in the mean
motion of Jupiter and Saturn, of which the physical cause was discovered by
Laplace in 1785:

^U = 3".0 sin !5°.83597 {t - 1800.0) -hl26°.35j ... (2)

3. The Great Fluctuation, estimated by Newcomb to have a period of 275

years, but now found theoretically to have a period of 277.590 years. This involves
also the auxiliary period of 17.9971 years. This Great Fluctuation likewise has
some analogy to the Great Inequality of Jupiter and Saturn. The coefficient is

13".0 and the formula:

AL3 = 13".0 sin 1

1°. 29691 it - 1800.0) -f- 100°.6j ... (3)
 + 14.0

-t 12.0

+ 10.0

+ 6.0 ^
o "
-I- 6.0 H
~ir
O
-^4.0<
9 o
p O -t- 2.0^P
o o

An. m. Zd ^a. 1900 jia

- 2.0

-4.0
* o
? •^ti..7>^ - 6.0 2
& i^>:
"A o 5
Q h

''9^7%
^/.>r^'
o o © V "^"^-.IE.0
PiscovERY OP THfc Physical CAUSfc OP Trt&
I
-)40^
f LUCTUATI0;^5 OF* TH£ M00>Hb JAtAH MOlloH
-le.o
3Y T.J.J.5££ D££.10,191^.
Explanation: The very small circles represent the Observed Fluctuations, the larger circles the new Theoretical Fluctuations.
 ANNOUNCEMENT OF TWO IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES 5

Any Theory of Gravitation which explains the cause of the Moon's Fluctua-
tions must be regarded as meeting the conditions of an experimentum crucis. As
the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory triumphs under this severe test it must be
held to rest on a true Law of Nature.

On the other hand the light afforded by the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory

for making this difficult discovery in the Lunar Theory, which successfully chal-
lenged the greatest mathematicians for more than a century, shows the exceeding
usefulness of the unpublished researches on the Cause of Gravitation.

Having first drawn attention, in 1869, to the departure of the Moon's actual
motion from the theoretical places indicated by pure Gravitational Theory, New-
COMB worked out the chief Fluctuations in his Researches on the Motion of the Moon,
1878, and finished his final memoir on the subject just before his death in 1909.

Hill became deeply interested in the Lunar Theory in the early seventies,

and in 1877 published his celebrated Researches in the Lunar Theory. To the
date of his death in 1914, Dr. Hill never ceased to be interested in the Motion
of the Moon. Like Newcomb he was occupied with the subject over forty years,
yet he was unable to throw any light on these mysterious Fluctuations.
It was thus left to Professor E. W. Brown to make the most exhaustive
researches on the Lunar Theory yet attempted. He has now worked on the
subject for more than a quarter of a century, but has not found any satisfactory
explanation of the Fluctuations established by Newcomb.
Accordingly it would appear that the discovery of the Physical Cause of these

mysterious Fluctuations may be regarded as no ordinary achievement. If there

be those who hesitate to welcome the new results, they will still have the oppor-
tunity of improving on them in their own way, without embarrassment with the
details of the author's processes of discovery.

Universal Gravitation is now shown to be due to Electrodynamic Waves

traveling with the velocity of light, and reacting on matter through stresses in the

medium due to such waves, which are shown to be decidedly different from
those conceived by Maxwell in his Electromagnetic Theory of Light. In cor-
recting the researches of Maxwell and removing a traditional defect in the Wave-
Theory of Light, the author has been able to harmonize them essentially with some
curious views of Newton, on the cause of Gravitation, dating from 1721.

Ampere's explanation of Magnetic Forces, as due to elementary currents of

electricity circulating around the atoms is also harmonized with the Electrody-
namic Wave-Theory; and altogether the unity and harmony introduced into

our Theories of the Physical Universe is remarkable.

6 ANNOUNCEMENT OF TWO IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES

Not only does the assigned Cause, of Gravitation explain all known celestial

phenomena, and triumph under the experimentuvi crucis of the Lunar Fluctuations,
the explanation of which appears to be unique, but it seems thereby effectually to
exclude every other conceivable explanation. For mere coincidence could not
give this perfect physical theory of the intricate phenomena of the Lunar Fluctua-
tions.

It is only for these weighty reasons that the author has finally decided to
announce the discovery of the cause of the Moon's Fluctuations and of Universal

Gravitation. These two discoveries necessarily are associated, one and inseparable.
Details of themore elaborate researches on the Cause of Gravitation must
await publication, but the accompanying proof of the value of the discovery in
the Lunar Theory is ample, and it should be of interest to investigators in more
than one of the Physical Sciences.

T. J. J. SEE

Starlight on Loutre,

Montgomery City, Missouri, February 19, 1917.

 ANNOUNCEMENT OF TWO IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES

Physical Cause of the Fluctuations of the Moon's Mean Motion

T. J. J. See, Dec. 10, 1916

t
8 ANNOUNCEMENT OF TWO IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES

Physical Cause of the Fluctuations of the Moon's Mean Motion

(Continued)

I
'

Ai
 RESULTS OF RESEARCHES
ON THE

ELECTRODYNAMIC WAVE-THEORY OF PHYSICAL FORCES

BULLETIN NO. 2

DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

Bt T. J. J. SEE

I Geneeal Introductory Remarks

Having announced in the first of this series of Bulletins the discovery of the

physical cause of the hitherto Unexplained Fluctuations in the Moon's Mean

Motion, and of Universal Gravitation, and indicated the main features of the new
theoretical explanation of the Lunar Fluctuations, which are shown to constitute
an experimentum crucis for establishing the truth of the Electrodynamic Wave-
Theory of Universal Gravitation, the author is able to follow these significant

results with the announcement of the discovery of the Cause of Magnetism, —

including the Magnetism of the Earth and the periodic changes therein depending
on the Sun and Moon, —
in the action of Electrodynamic Waves of a New Type.

These waves proceed from the equators of the atoms, are flat in those planes and
in all planes normal to the lines of force, and propagated with the Velocity of

Light.
Notwithstanding the enormous development of the modern physical sciences
which deal with Electricity and Magnetism, beginning with the publication of
Gilbert's Treatise De Magnete, 1600, it is a recognized fact that up to the present
time the nature of Magnetism has successfully challenged the ingenuity of the
natural philosopher.
About half a century ago, however. Maxwell put into mathematical language
some penetrating observations of Faraday (Experimental Researches in Electricity,

§1297, etc., Nov., 1837) in regard to the properties of the fines of force: and was
able to attribute the properties of the magnetic field to the effects of rotations
around the lines of force. Indeed, at an earlier date Lord Kelvin had treated
of Faraday's discovery of 1845, that there is sensible rotation of a beam of polar-

(9)
10 DISCOVERY or THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

ized light when it is passed through heavy glass, carbon disulphide, etc., along
the path of a magnetic hne of force (Proc. Roy. Soc, Vol. VIII, June, 1856, Phil.
Mag., March, 1857, Baltimore Lectures, 1904, Appendix F.)
Lord Kelvin inferred that "the magnetic influence on light discovered by
Faraday depends on the direction of motion of moving particles," and that
"Faraday's optical discovery affords a demonstration of the reahty of Ampere's
explanation of the ultimate nature of magnetism."
After discussing Rankine's hypothesis of molecular vortices, which he had
himself developed at length, Lord Kelvin finally concludes: "I think we have
good evidence for the opinion that some phenomenon of rotation is going on in
the magnetic field, that this rotation is performed by a great number of very
small portions of matter, each rotating on its own axis, this axis being parallel
to the direction of the magnetic force, and that the rotations of these different

vortices are made to depend on one another by means of some kind of mechanism
connecting them."
Maxwell followed up Kelvin's researches, and, having become associated
with Faraday in 1861, formulated a mathematical theory of the physical lines
of force, 1861-2, and applied the theory of molecular vortices to Magnetic phenomena
and to Statical Electricity. Notwithstanding the originality, elasticity and
vigor of his powers at thirty, Maxwell had great difficulty in understanding the
mechanism of molecular vortices, because he had no suspicion that they represented
flat waves, having common direction and velocity and thus would be devoid of

friction and dissipation of the Energy of motion into heat.

This difficulty indeed has continued to the present day. For in his Mathe-
matical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, third edition, 1915, p. 486, Dr. Jeans
dwells at length on "our utter ignorance" of the mechanism by which action is

transmitted through the aether.

Accordingly, in his celebrated Memoir "On the Physical Lines of Force,"
1861, (cf. Scientific Papers, Vol. I, pp. 468, 486) Maxwell, by default of the
hypothesis of Waves, had to imagine a very artificial constitution of the aether:

"I have found great difficulty in conceiving of the existence of vortices in a

medium, side by side, revolving in the same direction about parallel axes. The
contiguous portions of consecutive vortices must be moving in opposite direc-
tions; and it is difficult to understand how the motion of one part of the medium
can coexist with, and even produce, an opposite motion of a part in contact with
it."

"The only conception which has at all aided me in conceiving of this kind
of motion is that of the vortices being separated by a layer of particles, revolving
 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OP MAGNETISM 11

each on its own axis in the opposite direction to that of the vortices, so that the
contiguous surfaces of the particles of the vortices have the same motion."
"In mechanism, when two wheels are intended to revolve in the same direc-
tion, a wheel is placed between them so as to be in gear with both, and this is

called an 'idle wheel'. The hypothesis about the vortices which I have to suggest
is that a layer of particles, acting as idle wheels, is interposed between each vortex
and the next, so that each vortex has a tendency to make the neighboring vortices
revolve in the same direction with itself."
It was from a new point of view, attained in 1914, that the present writer
was able to refer Magnetic phenomena to waves imagined as flat in planes normal
to the lines of force, and thus producing the observed rotation of the plane of
polarized light discovered by FaradayAs this view of magnetism
in 1845.
overcomes entirely the difficulties just described by Maxwell, and has since
been fully confirmed, it is now deemed advisable to communicate some of the
results to other investigators, in the hope that they may find the new lines of
inquiry worthy of attention in their researches.
The present treatment is restricted to brief notice by Bulletin, yet this may
suffice to elucidate the chief phenomena. Accordingly, anyone may join in tliese
studies who has the power of independent thinking, if his mind is not too much
biased by misleading traditions, which unfortunately still are very numerous.

II Analysis of Maxwell's Final Conclusions

As we have seen above it was in 1861 that Maxwell confirmed Kelvin's

conclusions from strict dynamical reasoning, 1856, that the transmission of Mag-
netic Force is associated with a rotatory motion of the small parts of the medium,
(cf. Maxwell's Article Attraction, Encyc. Brit., 9th edition, 1875, reprinted in the

Scientific Papers, Vol. II, p. 488, and Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, sec-

tions 791, 813, 816, 821, 822, 830 and 831.)

From the first Maxwell saw clearly that there is rotatory motion going on
in the medium and that the axis of rotation is in the direction of the magnetic

force. In his Treatise, §821, he concludes as follows: "The only resemblance

which we can trace between a medium through which circularly polarized light

is propagated and a medium through which lines of magnetic force pass, is that
in both there is a motion of rotation about an axis. But here the resemblance
stops ..."
"There is nothing, therefore, in the magnetic phenomenon which corresponds
to the wave length and the wave-propagation in the optical phenomenon. A
12 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OP MAGNETISM

medium in which a constant magnetic force is acting is not in consequence of that

force, filled with waves traveling in one direction, as when light is propagated
through it."

Accordingly, whilst Maxwell's great mathematical and physical intuition

enabled him to forecast and to outline the Electromagnetic Theory of Light, which
was afterwards so brilliantly confirmed by Hertz, he was never able to make
out the undulatory nature of Magnetism.
It is evident that Maxwell sought for waves along the lines of force instead

of at right angles to these lines; and, not finding any trace of such waves along the
lines of force, was led to the conclusion that they do not exist in Magnetic phenom-
ena, as shown above in the quotation from §821 of the Treatise. Apparently it

never occurred to him to consider magnetic waves in planes normal to the lines
of force, although he knew the observed rotations were in these planes, and rec-
ognized that the magnetic force consists in pressure normal to and tension along
these lines.
In §§641-46 of Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, it is shown
how electric and magnetic stresses may be analyzed, and the phenomena referred
to the state of the medium.
In the Article Attraction, 1875, Maxwell describes the theory as follows:
"It is there shown that, if we assume that the medium is in a state of stress, con-
sisting of tension along the lines of force, and pressure in all directions at right

angles to the lines of force, the tension and the pressure being equal in numerical
value and proportional to the square of the intensity of the field at the given point,
the observed electrostatic and electromagnetic forces will be completely accounted
for."

"The next step is to account for this state of stress in the medium. In the
case of electromagnetic force we avail ourselves of Thomson's deduction from
Faraday'^ discovery stated above. We assume that the small parts of the medium
are rotating about axes parallel to the lines of force. The centrifugal force due
to this rotation produces the excess of pressure perpendicular to the lines of force.
The explanation of electrostatic stress is less satisfactory, but there can be no
doubt that a path is now open by which we may trace to the action of a medium
all forces which, like the electric and magnetic forces, vary inversely as the square
of the distance, and are attractive between bodies of different names, and re-
pulsive between bodies of the same names."
Maxwell then turns to the consideration of the attraction of gravitation
but as in all ca.s(vs he imagines the pressure to be along the lines of the gravitative
force, combined with a tension in aU directions at right angles to these lines, he
 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM 13

is unable to make progress. This view of the stresses is incomplete, and thus it

is not remarkable that those who have followed him have also failed. (Cf. Mm-
CHiN, Treatise on Statics, Vol. II, 1886, pp. 448-458).
Maxwell adds in conclusion that stresses of the kind he imagined "would
no doubt account for the observed effects of gravitation. We have not, however,
been able hitherto to imagine any physical cause for such a state of stress."
It may be worth noting that Professor Challis of Cambridge long gave con-

siderable attention to the problems of Attraction, and had ascribed the observed
forces to wave action. In reviewing Challis' "Essay on the Mathematical Prin-
ciples of Physics," 1873, Maxwell was not convinced by the author's argument,
yet adds that gravity is the most universal and mysterious of all actions. "What-
ever theory of the constitution of bodies holds out a prospect of the ultimate
explanation of the process by which gravitation is effected, men of science will
be found ready to devote the whole remainder of their hves to the development
of that theory."

If so much importance avowedly was attached to the solution of the problem

of Attraction by the greatest mathematician and natural philosopher of the past
age, the present effort to give an accurate account of the successive steps in our
progress will not be considered superfluous.

Ill The Cause of the Attraction of Two Magnets

1. With this explanation of Maxwell's researches we shall consider the
cause of the mutual action* of two magnets, a chief magnet A, and a secondary
magnet or needle B. Under the hypothesis of Electrodynamic Waves, we see
that if the chief magnet acts alone, the waves proceeding from it give rise to in-
crease of pressure along the plane of xy, which is here taken at right angles to the
axis of the magnet.

2. At any distance = Vx^ + y^ from the axis of the magnet, the stress on
r

a small rectangle dxdy may be denoted by m. And the stress over a larger area
S = fj'dxdy of any figure in the x2/-plane, will be given the double integral

jfmdxdy (1)

*We are here concerned with the Physical Cause of the Stresses in Magnetism. The full
mathematical theory of these stresses, without explanation of the mechanism by which they are
produced, is given by Maxwell (Treatise, §§641-645) Minchin (Treatise on Statics, Vol. II,
1886, §396) Jeans (Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, 1915, §§157-168, 193-
203) and other authorities. The present discussion is restricted to the proof of the mech-
anism involved; for as Dr. Jeans says (p. 486) we have heretofore been "in utter ignorance
of the ultimate laws which govern action in the ether."
14 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

This resultant stress always has a definite value, depending on the variation of
the element of stress on the surface elements dx dy and the limits of the double
integral.

3. In general the mean intensity of the stress is given by the equation

m
^
'
P" = ^ _
S
ffmdxdy
ffdxdy

And this may be applied to a surface of any extent or figure. Tension is equivalent
to negative pressure. And the two types of stress on equal elements of the surface
of the medium are numerically of equal magnitude. In the equations (1) and
(2) the stress on the xy-plane is really a tension, but its value is identical with the
pressure in the direction of the xy-plane.

4. Let us now consider the cause of Attraction in the First Case, where the
Magnets present unlike poles. We may take the medium already stressed, as
Maxwell showed it is, by the chief Magnet A, having increase of pressure normal
to the lines of force and corresponding tension along these lines. At the centre
of the Magnet the increase of pressure is in the direction of the xy-p\ane, and the
tension therefore along the s-co-ordinate.

5. Now imagine a Needle or Secondary Magnet introduced into the field of

the chief magnet A, with its center lying exactly in the plane of xy, as shown in

the figure, which requires brief explanation.

The curve of wave amplitude is greatly magnified, so as to render the law of
the variation with the distance visible to the eye. The curve is a rectangular
k k
hyperbola referred to its asymptotes, y = - , or a = - .

It is well known that in wave motion the amplitude varies inversely as the
distance, but the energy of the wave action varies as the square of the amplitude,
k^
or E = y^'i which corresponds to the forces following the law of the inverse squares,

established for the attraction of Magnets by Gauss, Intensitas Vis Magneticce,

1833, §21, and for the attraction of the Planets under Universal Gravitation by
Newton, Principia, 1687.

Returning now to the stress in the medium between the magnets A and B,
we perceive that the rotatory elements of the new waves arising from B will at
every point of the plane tend to counteract those from the chief Magnet A. The
pressure parallel to the plane of xy is thus decreased, as if by a new tension super-
posed in that plane, with the value t = — m on any element dxdy.
 DISCOVEEY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM 15

6. The resulting modified mean stress or mean new pressure in the direction
of the xy-Tplane becomes

P' = P-p=//&dxdy -ffvsdxdy (3)

which necessarily is less than P. Accordingly, as the Medium is less stressed

when the Needle acts than when it does not, there results between the two ponder-
able bodies decrease of pressure in the direction of the plane xy.

7. The Pressure normal to the lines of force, as Maxwell shows, gives rise
to a tendency in the Medium to expand, just as the parts of compressed India rubber
do. Hence Faeaday's observation that the lines of force tend to repel one another
and to separate.Thus the tendency to expansion of the compressed medium
inevitably leads to the result observed by Faraday. As the pressure is decreased
by the action of the Needle, it is equivalent to a new tension in the direction of
the xy-Tphjxe. Hence we inevitably have attraction between the chief magnet
and the needle. Like a stretched India rubber layer contracting in the xy-plane,

the Medium contracts in that direction, thus drawing the magnets A and B together.

8. It is readily understood that although the introduction of the needle

relaxes the pressure at every point of xy and decreases correspondingly the tension

along the z-co-ordinate, the new stress, thereby superposed, is numerically greatest

at the least distances from both bodies, and thus directly between the two magnets.

Accordingly in the contraction of the Medium, like the relaxing of a stretched sheet
of India rubber, the magnets with unlike poles are drawn together. This ex-
planation is simple, and in view of Maxwell's analysis leaves nothing to be

desired either mathematically or physically.

IV The Cause of the Repulsion of Two Magnets

9. To reach the case of repulsion we now reverse the ends of the secondary
magnet, so that the poles presented are like. In this case the mean pressure
parallel to the plane of xy will become everywhere a maximum:

P' = P + p = f/Mxdy + ff^dxdy (4)

So far from developing tension between the two ponderable bodies, this case

offers increase of stress, increase of mean pressure parallel to the xy-plane, and in-

crease of mean tension parallel to the z-axis.

16 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

10. The Medium is thus given an augmented stress and the two ponderable
bodies are forced apart, as actually observed. The stress appropriate to each
body separately is augmented by the pressure and tension superposed by the other.

Accordingly, either body, by the wave action of the other, can exert a given stress
at a greater distance than without it, so that the double Magnetic system reacts
as if by mutual repulsion of the masses.

11. In this way we explain very simply the celebrated phenomenon of the
attraction and repulsion of two Magnets. The explanation involves no hypotheses
except the single one of the stressing of the medium by plane waves for producing the

rotations of the elements around the lines of force, in accordance with Faraday's
experiment of 1845, on the rotation of a beam of polarized light by magnetism.
12. It follows from the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Magnetism, that
such waves proceed from every atom in each magnet. At any point of space the
resulting rotations of the medium generally are not in the same plane, but in
planes mutually inclined at the angle e. The intensities of the wave energies

are I = —^ > J'= —75- , and therefore in a limited region the effect upon the
medium from pairs of masses of atoms

dnii = 0-2 dxi dy-i dz^ , dmy = o-i dxi dyi dzi ,

would lead to the stress element due to the resultant forces

(5) dP — j.^2
5 — cos € 5
j.^2
— dXi dVi dz^ dx\ dvi dzi

And for the whole of the two magnets* exerting stresses in the medium
throughout all space the sextuple integration would give for the resulting
attraction

+00 -H» +00 -1-00 -(-00 +w

(6)
'^'^Jjjjjj
—00— —00 —00 —00 00 —CO
[p-^-T^'ios. e'^^-^-^dxidyidzidxidyidzAdx'dy'dz'dxdydz

In this equation we have put ri^ = {x—x^^ + {y—yi)^ + {z—z^"^ for the squared
distance of the point {x, y, z) from the atoms of the primary mass, and equally

*In many works on Magnetism, such as that of Dr. Jeans, §§421-2, p. 379, it is shown
that the force between two magnets varies as the inverse fourth power of the distance. If
the waves acting from each magnet be imagined concentrated at the mean distance of the
other —
which is essentially the view taken in an integral formula, where each set of waves
is referred to its originating centre, —
then in this expression r' = r, and we get the law of the
inverse fourth power characteristic of magnetic mass action.
 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM 17

Ti^ = {x' — x^^ + {y' — Vi)"^ + {z' — z^"^, for the squared distance from the atoms
of the secondary magnet. The co-ordinates {xi, yi, Zi), (Xi, y^, z^ relate to the
spaces occupied by the atoms within the surfaces of the two bodies, while {x, y, z),

(x', y', z') represent all space referred to the centres of gravity of these bodies
as wave centres.
The sextuple integral (6) determines the action due to two magnetic systems,
with their waves interpenetrating throughout all space, and by the stressing of
the medium, thus causing the attraction observed.
If the matter of two Magnets be imagined expanded in to infinite cosmical
clouds or nebulae filling unlimited space, and interpenetrating each other in any
manner, the mutual potential energy of their matter under Universal Gravita-
tion would be
+ 00 4-00 +05 +00 +00 +00
'"^' ^^ '^y' ^^' ^^ ^^ ^^
_ c c c c c c
^ J J J J J J ^/(x-x'Y + + (3^^^ ^'^^
-CO _00 —00 —00
ftn _rrt no{y-y'Y
\u re, en rw ^ ^ • %f ^ • \ t

Let I and I' be the intensities of the magnetization due to the two magnets,
and X, [X, v, X', \i! , v' the direction cosines of their axes; then the mutual poten-
tial energy of the two magnets, imagined as nebulae of unlimited extent and inter-
penetrating each other in any manner, will be

+ 03 +CO +0S +00 +00 +05

^ = ///i7/
_00 —00 —00 —00 —00 —00
^i'^^h^'i>i''^^''^'^'^i^4y^'^''^'^'^ (8)

When the two magnets are distinct and confined within finite surfaces, the
above equations (6) and (8) may be reduced to the form of a triple integral appro-
priate for the mutual action of two finite magnetic systems each external to the
other, but with their waves interpenetrating throughout space, and causing attrac-
tion by the stresses developed in the medium.
Let us denote by R and R' the resultant forces at any point of space from all

the atoms in each of the two magnets. Then this equation becomes the triple

integral
+ 00 +00 +05

^ = T- S S S^^' ^°^ ^ dxdydz , (9)

_00 _00 —05

where is the angle between the direction of the resultant forces. By its infinite

limits this integral includes all space, and thus expresses the action resulting from
the stressing of the aethereal medium by the independent systems of electro-
dynamic waves emitted by the atoms of the two magnets and propagated through-
out infinite space with the velocity of light.
18 DISCOVERY OP THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OP MAGNETISM

In concluding this analysis of the attraction and repulsion of magnets, it

only remains to point out, that the poles are positive or negative, according as the
molecular rotations are positive or negative. The action thus depends on the
side from which we view the vortices or the plane waves emitted by the atoms of

the magnets. And as electro-magnets acquire their properties under the action
of currents which line up their atoms in parallel planes, held by Ampere, 1822,
the electrodynamic wave-theory impHes that mutual interactions of waves alone
are concerned in magnetic attraction.
Accordingly the old conception of two fluids finally disappears from the
theory of magnetism. Whether this wiU lead also to the disappearance of the
terms positive and negative as applied to electricity remains to be decided; but it

is not easy to see how our views on this hitherto obscure subject can escape
material modification.

V New Theory op Oersted's Experiment op 1819

In view of the foregoing theory of Magnetic Attraction by stresses in the

Medium, due to waves, we are now able to give a simple dynamical explanation
of Oersted's celebrated experiment of 1819, as follows.

1. Imagine a wire bearing a current from South to North, as shown in the

accompanying Figure 2, and let a magnetic needle be suspended below it.

2. Owing to the rotations in the earth's field it will be seen that looking
north right handed rotations make up the elements of the electrodynamic waves
from the wire, while viewed from the south pole left handed rotations proceed from
the needle below the wire, as shown in the figure. This gives a general view of
the nature of the mutual wave action.

3. The result is that at every point of space the stress in the medium, due
to the current, isby the waves due to the magnet; and when the pressure
decreased
and tension are thus decreased, the medium contracts like a stretched mass of
India rubber. The contraction is greatest between the needle and the wire, and
thus the needle is drawn to the wire. This will apply to a copper wire, or wire
of any conducting material, and hence the explanation is general, applying directly

to Arago's experiment of 1820.

4. It has been held from the days of Oersted that the current only directs

the needle, but neither attracts nor repels it (cf. Maxwell's address on Action at a
Distance, Scientific Papers, Vol. II, p. 317). Maxwell apparently was unable to
detect the error in this reasoning, and, with his endorsement of the view of Oer-
 DISCOVERY OP THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OP MAGNETISM 19

STED, it seems to have continued to the present time.* But the above reasoning
shows the error in the traditional theory of this celebrated experiment, which
was the very beginning of Electrodynamics.

VI Reconciliation of Ampere's Theory op Electric Currents Cir-

culating ABOUT THE AtOMS WITH THE ElECTRODYNAMIC WaVE-ThEORY
OF Magnetism

From experiments made in 1822, Ampere found that when the wire con-
ducting a positive current in a solenoid is wound right handed about the steel bar
within, that end of it becomes the south pole. Instead of attributing magnetic
phenomena to two fluids Ampere assumed that each individual molecule of a
magnetic substance is transversed by a closed electric current, and further that
these molecular currents are free to move about their centers, and thus forced
to line up in parallel planes by the action of the electric current. They are sur-
rounded by an infinite system of plane waves traveling outward through space
in all directions, and thus called a polarized or magnetic field.

Ampere's Theory of Magnetism was proposed in 1822 {Journal de Physique,

Tome XCIII, or Recueil d' Observations, Paris, 1822, pp. 164-174), and ascribes the

power of magnetizing to the turnable character of the molecular currents about

the molecules. He cites various considerations in support of this view, and in
paragraph 7 says they "confirm the opinion, founded moreover on a compari-
son of all the facts, that the properties of magnets are really due to the continued
movement of two electric fluids around their particles." (Theorie Mathematique

des Phenomeones Electro-dynamiques, A. M. Ampere, 2d edition, Paris, 1883, p. 151).

In the accompanying diagram. Fig. 3, we give the mathematical conditions

which prove that the Theory of Ampere is identical with the Wave-Theory: there is

thus shown to exist an exact agreement of the two theories, as implied in equa-
tion (10), which underlies the whole theory of wave motion.

1. Imagine a series of plane waves propagated along a horizontal line, as

shown in Fig. 3. All the waves

y = A sin
y {Vt - x) + a, (10)
| [

*In recognizing that by the action of its poles the needle tends to bend itself around a
charged wire Maxwell impHes the attraction of the needle to the wire, but this view of the
action of poles is so unsatisfactory that we proceed in a very different way.
20 DISCOVERY OP THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

are taken to have the same length (X) though of different phase (a,) as if coming
from successive atoms of a magnet at different distances, but otherwise acting in
concert. The successive waves are numbered <Xi, <Xi, cca, cc*, ol^, a^, a?, as.

The circular figure represents an Ampere atom, and for simplicity we

2.

have made the points of the circumference at 0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°, 225°, 270°,
315°, 360°, correspond to the waves of phase ai, a-i, as, 1X4, ae, ae, a?, as. The
intervals here adopted are for graphical illustration only, and it is evident that
for a magnet with billions of billions of atoms in any diameter of the cross section,

the successive waves would be infinite in number, 1 to 00 ; and, owing to the

atoms crowded in above and below the line, their spaces apart also are infinitely
small.

3. Acccordingly , it follows that this infinite order of successive waves, also from
above and below, would give continuous motion at every point of the circuit of the
Ampere atom here represented. Thus the aether in continuous motion, oscillating

as the waves pass, would give the effect of closed electric currents circulating about
the atoms. These currents would attract or repel according to their direction of flow,
as long held in Electrodynamics by Ampere, Weber, and their successors.

4. Therefore it follows that a succession of waves from the atoms would explain
the closed electric currents imagined by Ampere to circulate around the atoms. And
vice versa, the existence of the closed currents implies the existence of the waves.
The two views are easily harmonized by such an explanation, which is both nec-
essary and sufficient to account for all the phenomena. The Wave-Theory is
therefore geometrically established as representing the true phenomena of Nature;
for it is only by waves depending on oscillations within the atomic system that we
can explain the closed currents imagined by Ampere to circulate about the atoms
of a Magnet. As the Aether is the vehicle of energy, it is a perfectly elastic
medium; and electrodynamic waves, with half the energy kinetic and half poten-
tial, for stressing the medium, is Nature's way of exerting action across space,

through forces traveling with the velocity of light.

VII New Theory op Arago's Experiment op 1820

In view of the above theory of Oersted's experiment it is easy to explain

in a very simple manner the attraction observed in Arago's celebrated experiment
of 1820.

1. Imagine a copper wire bearing a current, with waves proceeding from

it, as shown in the foregoing figure illustrating Oersted's experiment. The
 -^^^-"^^^"-a-Oy /Oo-^^-^

Fig. 3. Ampere's Theory of Elementary Electric Currents about Atoms

reconciled with the Wave-Theory.

Jf&tun^ oj- Plane -Wave Morion l/lustiateaMaetail.

Fig. 1. Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Magnetic Attraction and Repulsion.

Fig. 5. Newton's Theory of the lateral spreading

Fig. 4. New Theory of theWhirl of Iron Filings of waves propagated through an Orifice.,
about a conducting wire. Principia, 1687.
Fig. 2. New Theory Oersted's and Arago's
of
Experiments, 1819-20, and of Induction.
 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM 21

rotations of the elements in these waves will be right handed, as seen from the
eastern side of the southern end of the wire, owing to the well known direction
of the rotations in the earth's magnetic field.

2. Now let particles of soft iron filings — which we may suppose cylindrical
in form, as if made by cutting up soft iron wire small diameter — be brought
of
near the copper wire. It is evident that the electrodynamic waves proceeding
from the wire will induce magnetism in these filings; one end will become a north
pole and the other a south pole.

3. The south pole of any little cylinder will take a position similar to that
of the needle just described in Oersted's experiment. And, just as in that
celebrated experiment, these little temporary magnetic needles will be attracted

to the wire — the south end of one fitting on to the north end of another, till the
whole mass of iron filings forms an envelope about the copper wire. If not too
thick and heavy this sheath of temporary magnets will cling to the wire so long
as the current flows.

But let the current cease, and it is observed that the filings will lose their
4.

magnetism, and drop off. This also follows from the theory of Oersted's experi-
ment described above. For the attraction only takes place when the little filings
under the waves from the wire become magnets. The instant a filing becomes a
magnet, it sends out waves of its own, like those from the needle in Oersted's
experiment; these little waves tend to decrease the stress in the medium due to
the waves from the copper wire. And then Attraction necessarily follows.

5. As the filings are very small cylinders, they are feeble as magnets, and their

magnetic waves are sensible only at very small distances. Hence in Arago's experi-
ment it usually is necessary to dip the copper wire into the iron filings to get them
to adhere. Yet as we see from the foregoing figure the theory is identical with

that of Oersted's experiment, except that the little magnets are electro-magnets,
depending on the current, but so small that they have sensible wave power only
at very short distances.

6. Accordingly, it appears that a correct theory of Oersted's experiment

is the first desideratum for explaining Arago's experiment. Up to the present
time it seems that no satisfactory explanation of these two celebrated experiments
has been forthcoming. By the adaptation of Maxwell's theory of stresses in

the Medium to the new electrodynamic wave-theory this long standing difficulty

appears to be completely overcome.

22 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

VIII New Theory of the Circular Whirls of Iron Filings about a Wire
Bearing a Steady Current

The phenomena presented by the circular whirls of iron filings about a con-
ducting wire has never been satisfactorily explained, although spoken of as show-
ing a sketch of the lines of force in the surrounding magnetic field.

1. From the above theory of Oersted's and Arago's experiments, we per-

ceive that just as the wire attracts a needle, or small electromagnet in Arago's
experiment, so also will the waves about the wire make electromagnets out of
the iron filings, whether they be near the wire or further away. The filings line

up, with the north pole of one joined to the south pole of another, and are thus
winnowed by the electrodynamic waves into helices, which are almost concentric
circles about the conducting wire. The filings are heavy, and not drawn to the
wire unless very near, as their magnetic fields are minute in extent.

2. Two little electromagnets in the same line thus exert mutual attraction at

their adjacent (unlike) poles; but on the sides two such magnets, further apart, in

different circles, offer slight repulsion, because there the adjacent poles are like, as

shovm in the accompanying Figure 4-

The result therefore is repulsion of

3. the circles for one another, as was
observed by Faraday for his lines of force generally. Indeed he noticed that
they tend to shorten themselves, and to separate, and we now see why this tend-

ency exists.

4.As the electrodynamic waves recede from the wire they react on the
filings,by induced waves, as before explained. The winrows of iron filings are
thereby inevitably drawn nearer and shortened, just as the needle in Oersted's
experiment and the filings in Arago's experiment are brought as near the wire
as possible. Yet owing to the repulsion, due to the presentation of similar poles
in adjacent winrows, the lines of force inevitably tend to separate and appear as
distinct winrows. The neighboring lines probably repel each other slightly, but
at the same time tend to shorten themselves to the maximum extent.

5. This apparently gives a complete explanation of the observed properties

of Faraday's fines of force. It only remains to add that in the case of a magnet
the shortening and tension of the lines of force is towards the two poles, as shown
in the writer's unpublished memoir of 1914, and in Fig. 1 above.

6. In the case of waves from currents on the wires, the lengths of the lines
of force naturally are a minimum. Magnetic waves proceed from the atoms,
 DISCOVERY OP THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM 23

and the lines of force re-enter at the magnetic poles, the tension making them also
of the shortest possible length. On the other hand pressure, in the direction at
right angles to the lines of force, due to rotations of the wave elements, makes
the medium tend to expand itseK to the maximum. This simple reasoning appears
to open to our mental vision a perfect picture of the processes going on in the Mag-
netic Field.

It should be noted that the position taken by the needle in Oersted's ex-
periment shows that the lines of force about a conducting wire are not exact cir-

cles, as Maxwell believed, but helices, somewhat closely wound, and thus roughly
resembling circles.

Explanation of Induction and op the Induced Current Based on Change

IN the Wave Action

Having given above a new theory of Magnetic Induction, based on wave

action, we add here a simple theory of the Induced Current.

1. When waves from wire A, Fig. 2, are increasing, their action in passing
wire B also produces a current — the induced current — which ceases as soon as
current A becomes steady.
But this only shows that the waves from A have become uniform in their

action on wire B. Let current A be interrupted or cut down, and there wiU be
an immediate response in B, in the contrary direction.

2. This indicates that the aether in and about B was stressed by the steady
flow of waves, and springs back by moment current A is cut
elastic reaction the

down or stopped, which shows the perfect elasticity of the medimn and its instant
response to change. It thus appears that by the theory of waves we have a per-
fectly simple explanation of the Induced Current.

The electrodynamic wave-theory shows how this occurs, and thus makes
clear the nature of the reaction for developing the Induced Current, which it

seems has not been clearly understood heretofore.

3. As the induced current always resists the original current, flowing in the

contrary direction, this tendency shows that it is due to the elastic reaction of the
waves, when the wave-development or flow changes. We thus obtain a very
convincing proof of the wave-theory; and the explanation is so simple that anyone
can grasp it.
24 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OP MAGNETISM

IX In Magnets the Waves Emitted by the Atoms Start as Flat Wave-

lets IN Planes Normal to the Magnetic Axis, but as the Rotations
of the Wave Elements Give Increase of Pressure Normal to the Lines
OF Force, Balanced by Tension Along these Lines, There Necessarily
Results from this Equilibrium Between the Pressure and Tension
A Maximum Tendency to Lateral Spreading of the Rotating Filaments,
AND Hence a Crowding of the Vorticose Aether into the Poles.

After what has been shown in regard to the waves proceeding from a Magnet,
the above conclusion is almost obvious. For it is well known that if we start

plane waves, in a fluid such as water, and let them issue through an orifice with
sharp walls, the wave disturbance tends to spread laterally, on either side of the
orifice. This spreading to the side was carefully discussed by Newton, and is

illustrated by the accompanying figure from the Principia, (Lib. II, Section Vll,

Prop. XLI, p. 359, Glasgow edition, 1871).

Now it is obvious that if such a lateral spreading as is here indicated by New-
ton can take place in such a fluid as water, when agitated by steady waves —
which is easily verified by observation — then it is evident that a similar lateral
spreading wiU about a mag-
tend to take place in the filaments of vorticose aether
net. Water waves passing through an opening, like that above drawn by New-
ton, have both longitudinal and transverse motion, and the periodic oscillations
of the particles are in planes normal to the fluid surface. The periodic oscilla-
tions making up the wave motion are around lines parallel to the axes of the waves
here drawn: which correspond exactly with the Faraday Lines of Force in the
Magnetic problem. Therefore in Magnetism the similar periodic oscillations of
the particles of the aether wiU be around the Faraday Lines of Force; and the
vorticose aether will experience a crowding towards either pole of the Magnet,
from the equilibrium of the pressure and tension incident to the Magnetic Waves
proceeding from each atom. The necessary result, in the maintenance of the
equihbrium, will be a reaction extending the wave along the axis, and, after the
filament curves around, crowding the vorticose aether in at either pole of the
Magnet, as announced in the above proposition.

X The Equilibrium Between Pressure and Tension Gives the Side-

spreading OF Waves from Magnets, and thus is the Cause of the
Motion along the Lines of Force.
1. The integral developed by Whittaker {Monthly Notices, 1902, p. 619)
in his theory of flat wavelets for explaining the Gravitation of a particle is
 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM 25

i ;
(11)
r

and obviously this will also hold for atomic waves in the planes of their
equators.

2. Now from each atom wavelets originally flat, parallel, and normal to the
Magnetic axis are traveling outward through all space {x, y, z). But as in pass-
ing through an orifice the water waves tend to spread to the side, — so also will
the aether waves tend to be prolonged under the tension in the medium. And
in the equilibrium between the pressure and tension there necessarily is a tendency
at every point of the line of force to extend the vorticose aether motion sidewise.
And in this continued balance between pressure and tension the result is an adjust-
ment of the lines of force to minimum length for the given stress of the medium,
which is determined by the sum total of the waves from all the atoms.

3. Obviously it is not by chance that the lines of force are flattest at the

side of a magnet. This form of the vorticose filaments necessarily results from
the extension of motion under the very nature of the system of waves incessantly
emitted. By the extension of the filaments, due to tension in the lines of force,
the vorticose aether tends to lengthen at every point parallel to the axis of the
Magnet; thus even at the end of the bar, there is a spreading beyond, under the
tension of the vorticose filaments, and the lines therefore curve gently around,
and enter towards the pole.

4. Imagine an infinite series of narrow orifices along the sides of a magnet

to allow of the emission of waves and their side-spreading, as in the waves of water
treatedby Newton in the Principia; then we may easily see how the medium
about the magnet reacts to make tension along the lines of force. Such centers
of wave-generation in the medium must be imagined to exist throughout the bar
of the magnet, while narrow apertures are imagined at the surface of the bar, in
all directions.

5. As the waves emerge through these narrow orifices, with increase of

pressure normal to the axis, the reaction will give tension incident to the spreading
of the vorticose motion sidewise: the fiuid therefore has a tension in that direction,
and the lines of force necessarily are made as short as possible, under the pressure

of the medium in planes normal to the axis of the magnet.

26 DISCOVEEY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

XI The Electkodynamic Waves Pkopagated from Magnets Normal to

THE Lines of Force Are Flat, with Motion of Aether Particles both
Longitudinal and Transverse, Exactly like that of Waves in Still
Water; and as these Longitudinal Waves Travel only with the
Velocity of Light, It Follows that the AETHER Does not Vibrate
AS an Incompressible Elastic Solid.

In his celebrated Article on the Wave Theory of Light, Ency. Brit., 9th edition,
pp. 422 and 446, 1887, Lord Rayleigh shows that an isotropic elastic solid may
transmit two kinds of waves:

1. Transverse Waves depending on rigidity or resistance to shearing motion,

as layers of the soUd slide over one another, the velocity of transmission depend-
ing on the power of recovery from a state of shear.

2. Compressional Waves, depending on alteration of volume. Lord Rayleigh

citesGreen's conclusion that the aether is incompressible; so that if a, p, y be
the component displacements, the dilatation

,.«x f da ,
d0 ,
dy _
(12)
'-Tx + Ty + Tz='^-

Otherwise, as in Sound, these longitudinal waves would become sensible. But

as such waves are not observed, in Light, it is concluded that the longitudinal
waves have infinite velocity, owing to the incompressibility of the medium.
In the foregoing discussion we have seen that in Magnetism, the electro-
dynamic waves normal to the lines of force are flat, with motions of the particles
or elements in rotation, which are both longitudinal and transverse. It is also

a fact, well determined by experimental research, like that of Hertz, that electro-
magnetic waves, as Maxwell first predicted in 1864, travel only with the velocity
of light. Thus the part of the wave which is longitudinal travels with the same
speed as the rest of the wave disturbance. Accordingly, the older view of Green,
that the longitudinal wave may have infinite velocity, is contradicted, and must
be wholly abandoned. Hence it follows that the aether does not vibrate as an
incompressible elastic solid, but must be held to be a compressible medium of

high elasticity.

3. In his celebrated Article on the Wave Theory, p. 451, Lord Rayleigh

gives the following lucid account of Magnetic Rotation:

"The possibiUty of inducing the rotatory property in bodies otherwise free

from it was one of the finest of Faraday's discoveries. He found that, if heavy
 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM 27

glass, bisulphide of carbon, etc., are placed in a magnetic field, a ray of polarized
light, propagated along the lines of magnetic
force, suffers rotation. The laws
of the phenomenon were carefully studied by Verdet, whose conclusions may be
summed up by saying that in a given medium the rotation of the plane for a ray
proceeding in any direction is proportional to the difference of magnetic potential
at the initial and final points. In bisulphide of carbon, at 18° and for a difference
of potential equal to unit C. G. S., the rotation of the plane of polarization of a
ray of soda light is .0402 minute of angle."
"A very important distinction should be noted between the magnetic rotation
and that natural to quartz, syrup, etc. In the latter the rotation is always right
handed or always left handed with respect to the direction of the ray. Hence
when the ray is reversed the absolute direction of rotation is reversed also. A
ray which traverses a plate of quartz in one direction, and then after reflexion
traverses the same thickness again in the opposite direction, recovers its original

plane of polarization. It is quite otherwise with the rotation under magnetic

force. In this case the rotation is in the same absolute direction even though the

ray be reversed. Hence, if a ray be reflected backwards and forwards any num-
ber of times along a line of magnetic force, the rotations due to the several passages
are all accumulated. The non-re versibihty of light in a magnetized medium proves
the case to be of a very exceptional character, and (as was argued by Thomson)
indicates that the magnetized medium is itself in rotatory motion independently
of the propagation of light through it."

4. Without in the least intending it, this account shows in the clearest manner

the true nature of Magnetism, which really depends on flat waves in planes normal

to the lines of force. Such waves are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.
Fig. 1, discussed in III above. These flat ivaves explain both magnetic attraction

and repulsion, by stresses in the medium, due to the rotations about the lines of force,

which Maxwell treated of as far back as 1861, and Lord Kelvin in 1856.
Accordingly, contrary as it is to traditional opinion, there is nothing in modern
Science to contradict the existence of these fiat waves, of which the magnetic rota-

tions are the elements. Since the velocity is that of Light these flat longitudinal

waves do not correspond to the incompressible elastic solid theory, and become
in fact an experimentum crucis against it.

5. As shown in the detailed illustration of plane wave motion, Fig. 1, regular

waves on still water are propagated by similar flat osciUations, or rotations of the

particles around mean positions. If such waves be maintained steadily from

any source, the rotations of the fluid elements will be incessant, — as observed
28 DISCOVEBY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

by Faraday for Magnets, 1845, in the experiment on the rotation of polarized

Hght, and in the immemorial phenomenon of the tides of the sea (cf. Airy's Tides
and Waves, 1845) depending on the retm-n of the Sun and Moon. From the fore-

going theory it follows that such flat ivaves in the Aether do actually proceed from the

atoms of all magnets, and the persistence of the Faraday lines of force shows that
they remain flat at all distances.

The power of Magnetism is thus extended to infinity, but only with the
velocity of light, and without any change in the nature of the waves. According-
ly it follows from the above reasoning of Lord Rayleigh and the similar reasoning
of Lord Kelvin in the Article Elasticity, Encyc. Brit., ninth edition (pp. 824-5),

that Green's inference of an infinite velocity for the longitudinal wave is con-
tradicted by well established observations in Electrodynamics, which apply also
to Magnetism.

6. Therefore, in the propagation of Magnetic Waves the aether certainly

does not behave as an incompressible elastic solid. There can be no doubt that
the whole Wave-Theory of Light will require corresponding revision. Already in
his celebrated Article on the Wave-Theory, written in 1887, Lord Rayleigh shows
that as a whole the analogy with a solid is not very satisfactory, the theory being
of doubtful applicability. Perhaps the present line of thought will give some
definite grounds on which a consistent reconstruction may be attempted.

XII The Electrodynamic Wave-Theory Postulates Waves Flat in the

Equators of the Atoms, and Therefore of a New Type
Not the least of the advantages of this simple and harmonious Wave-Theory
is that it completely wipes away the mechanical difficulties which so beset Max-
well in 1861, as described in II above, and which Lord Kelvin and other mod-
ern physicists have been so wholly unable to overcome that in his Mathematical
Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, 1915, p. 485-6, Dr. Jeans says:

"We have even obtained formulae for the stresses and energy in the ether.

But it has not been possible to proceed any further and to explain the existence
of these stresses and energy in terms of the ultimate mechanism of the ether ..."
"We do not know how the aether behaves, and so can make no progress towards
explaining electromagnetic phenomena in terms of the behaviour of the ether."
In view of the nature of the electrodynamic waves emitted from magnets,
which are flat in planes normal to the lines of force, we see that there is everywhere
minimum friction and resistance, and an essential similarity between these waves
 DISCOVEBY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM 29

and those observed on the surface of still water. As applied to the aether the
waves are thus of a new type. In the planes of the equators of the atoms, the mo-
tion is that of a flat wavelet. On either side of the equator, the motion becomes
that of a helix, with right handed or left handed rotation, according to the side
from which it is viewed.
But it should be distinctly pointed out that the movement of the vector is

not wholly perpendicular to the direction of the ray — as held in the tradition
handed down and still taught in the Wave-Theory of Light — but has associated
with its advance the fraction of the original periodic longitudinal motion in the

equator determined by the cosine of the atomic latitude of the point of observa-
tion. Thus if the amplitude of the flat wave in the equator be a, the longitudinal
displacement of the particles of the aether is

= acos (Fi - x) + al
J
|y , (13)

and on either side of the equator the longitudinal displacement becomes ?' =
i cos s, where e is the latitude of the point of observation in reference to the
equator of the atom emitting the wave.
How different is down in the Wave-Theory of Light may
the teaching handed
be seen from the account given by Maxwell, Treatise on Electricity and Mag-
netism, §816.
Maxwell's argument is not at all conclusive, but is satisfied equally well

by waves of the type here outlined. Thus if the mutual inclination of the planes
of two polarized rays be i, we shall have for the relative transverse motion at
any point

rj' = 'q COS e CO? 2* = a sin •< — {Vt — x) + a > cos e cos i , (14)

This vanished when i = ^^qo \

, and otherwise fulfills the recognized laws of pol-

arized light, which does not interfere when the planes of polarization are at right

angles to each other.

It will simplify matters to remember that polarized light also has longitudinal

motion, owing to the rotation of its elements as the flat wavelet advances; in fact such

light is much hke the magnetic waves normal to the Unes of force. Hence the
magnetization of a body consists in polarizing its waves by turning the atoms into
parallel planes, so that the waves everywhere conform and vibrate in concert.

The waves produce stresses in the medium, and the natural vibrations of the
atoms, so well known in Light, are easily extended to Magnetism, owing to the
30 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF MAGNETISM

connections es,tablished by Faraday and Zeeman. In fact the present investi-

gation gives a new foundation for the theory of the Zeeman effect, as well as that
long ago discovered by Faraday.
This simple Theory of Magnetism so well explains the phenomena of Nature
that the scrupulous philosopher will hesitate before denying its truth. The
magnetic waves considered are longer than the waves of light and heat, and thus
readily go through all bodies. Perhaps it is well to recall the relative lengths of
the electrodynamic waves now known:

1. The smallest wave length measured 0.00001 cm.

2. Maximum of chemical action in solar spectrum which is

near the extremity of the visible spectrum . . . 0.00004

3. The yellow D line of sodium 0.000059
4. Red extremity of visible spectrum 0.00007
5. Maximum energy in solar spectrum 0.00008
6. Longest wave-length measured 0.0025
7. Shortest electrical oscillation yet measured . . . .0.6

8. Waves used in Radio-Telegraphy

^^^^j^lg ;
'
240000
I

This table shows the almost infinite range of the waves already measured.
In many cases they are very short, and we can not see them with the eye or feel
them with the touch; yet the invention of the galvanometer and bolometer has
given us the most refined methods of testing the existence and laws of action of
these electrodynamic disturbances. In the next Bulletin we hope to deal with
Cosmical Magnetism, including the periodic fluctuations in the Earth's Mag-
netism depending on the actions of the Sun and Moon.
But from what is here shown it wiU be obvious that the heavenly bodies emit
electrodynamic waves of similar length to those emitted from artificial and nat-
ural magnets. The study of Magnetism from the new point of view will thus de-
serve the attention of the astronomer, the geometer, and the natural philosopher.
Being among the most familiar cases of Attraction in Nature, Magnetism
naturally appeals to us as one of the most accessible to study and observation.
It is only after we have studied the new theory of Magnetism, in its cosmical

aspects, that we can profitably approach the greater mystery of the CaM.se of Uni-
versal Gravitation.

T. J. J. SEE
Starlight on Loutre,

Montgomery City, Missouri, May 8, 1917.

 Issued June 6, 1917

PUBLISHERS :

THOS. p. NICHOLS & SON CO., Lynn, Mass., U. S. A.

WM. WESLEY & SON, London

© A. HERMANN ET FILS, Paris
 RESULTS OF RESEARCHES
ON THE

ELECTRODYNAMIC WAVE-THEORY OF PHYSICAL FORCES

BULLETIN NO. 3

DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

By T. J. J. SEE

I Inteoductory Remarks

At the outset of Sir George Airy's Treatise on Magnetism, which was written
in 1870, and dedicated to Sir John Hbrschel, the late distinguished Astronomer

Royal begins the discussion as follows: "In ordinary observation, magnetism

is scarcely known except as existing in iron and especially in steel, and as related
in some obscure manner to the Earth. But there is reason to believe that it is

one of the most extensively diffused agents in nature."

He then treats of the leading phenomena of magnetism as observed in iron,

steeland other substances, including the magnetism of the Earth. And at length,
having shown that the Sun and Moon also exert magnetic influence. Sir George
Airy terminates his thoughtful work with this interesting confession: "On the
whole, we must express our opinion that the general cause of the Earth's mag-
netism still remains one of the mysteries of cosmical physics." (p. 220).

On perfectly general principles it almost necessarily follows that the cause of

the Earth's magnetism must be mysterious, so long as we are without a clear and
definite physical theory of the ordinary magnetism of iron and steel, as set forth

in Bulletin No. 2. Yet this recent comprehensive statement by Sir George

Airy, thirty-two years after Gauss' work on the mathematical theory of Terres-
trial Magnetism, 1838, is of more than passing interest. For in the interval
since the epoch of Gauss the organizing influence of Humboldt had led to the

widest studies of the magnetism of the globe in both hemispheres; and in this
same period Maxwell had made a most comprehensive survey of the whole
field of Electricity and Magnetism, and included in his celebrated Treatise a thought-
ful discussion of Terrestrial Magnetism, (Book III Chapter VII).

(33)
34 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

It is true that in this subject Maxwell did not reach any new results of
significance, yet he recognized clearly the work to be done, when he declared that
"The field of investigation into which we are introduced by the study of terres-
trial magnetism is as profound as it is extensive." (§474).
The secular changes in the Magnetism of the Earth, and the periodic fluc-

tuations depending on the Sun and Moon strongly appealed to Maxwell's

curiosity, but he could only "conclude that we are not yet acquainted with one
of the most powerful agents in Nature, the scene of whose activity lies in the
inner depths of the Earth, to the knowledge of which we have so few means
of access."

In the Preface to his Treatise, Feb. 1, 1873, Maxwell pays a glowing tribute
to the progress of TerrestrialMagnetism under the leadership of Gauss. He
says that the electromagnetic speculation originated by Gauss and carried on
by Weber, Riemann, Franz Neumann, Carl Neumann, Lorenz, etc., "is
founded on the theory of action at a distance, but depending either directly on the
relative velocity of the particles, or on the gradual propagation of something
whether potential or force, from the one particle to the other."
This view of action as something propagated in time was before Gauss in
1835; for it is so stated in the celebrated letter to Weber, March 19, 1845 (cf.

Gauss' Werke, Band V, p. 629). But as Gauss was not able to obtain the de-
sired form of expression, he put the matter aside temporarily, and, as he did not
resume it, thus left to Weber the formulation of the Fundamental Law of Elec-

trodynamic Action:

mm' ( , 1 fdry ,
2r dV)

where c is the velocity of propagation, and r the distance between the bodies m
and m'.
It is a remarkable fact that although Weber's law was formulated in 1846,
nine years before the death of Gauss, neither this great mathematician nor Weber
nor any of their numerous followers — not even Maxwell, who studied Mag-
netism so closely — took any step for disclosing to our mental vision the existence
of electrodynamic waves upon which magnetic action depends. And whilst
Weber's law is correct, the latter terms involving both the induction and the
change of the induction under varying relative motion — yet this equation in

the form of a ivorking representation — the construirbare Vorstellung sought by

Gauss in 1835 — conveyed to us no definite physical meaning, prior to the out-

line of the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory in Bulletin No. 2.

 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 35

It is now hoped Wave-Theory of Magnetism there

that the Electrodynamic
developed may give us a new view of Terrestrial Magnetism and of Cosmical
Magnetism in general. Instead of a vague theory of action at a distance we
have a simple explanation of Magnetism and of Magnetic Attraction under the
action of waves propagated from the atoms. In the case of the Earth this means
waves of such length that they traverse the body of the globe; for Gauss found
that Terrestrial Magnetism depends upon the matter within the depths of the
globe as weU as near the surface.
We have verified the validity of Ampere's theory of Magnetism from a new
point of view, and found that in common magnets the atoms are lined up in parallel
planes, so that their waves act together in concert, and yield the maximum power
of attraction. In a body like the Earth or Sun only a small fraction of the atoms
are thus mutually parallel, in respect to an axis, so as to yield magnetic poles,
by their concerted vibrations. Accordingly cosmical magnetism naturally is

feeble.

But if Gravitation also be regarded as an electrodynamic action, it is obvious

that the wave action in respect to the mass of atoms of a heavenly body, which
are arranged in haphazard fashion, should under their combined vibrations give
a mean action which is central, in accordance with the observed law of Nature.
This explains why gravitation is central and does not present the duality of powers

noticed by Airy as characteristic of Magnetism. (Treatise on

p. 10.) Magnetism,
Thus the study of Cosmical Magnetism will throw light not only on the
magnetism of the Earth and Sun, but also on the connection existing between
Terrestrial Magnetism and the gravitational forces which control the motions
of the planets in their orbits. These forces are due to electrodynamic wave action
propagated in right lines with the velocity of Light.
In order to unfold this new view of many related natural phenomena it is
necessary to proceed step by step. And we may look forward to a complete
unification of the forces involved only after we have traversed extensive groups

of phenomena heretofore apparently standing in isolation, and thus utterly be-

wildering to the natural philosopher.

II Gauss' Mathematical Theory Harmonized with the Electrodynamic

Wave-Theory of Terrestrial Magnetism

In his Algemeine Theorie des Erdmagnetismus, 1838, Gauss has deduced

general expressions for the Earth's magnetism, and given complete formulas for
36 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

calculating the component forces at any point of the Earth's surface. The usual
resolutions of the forces are

X = H cos = yr)
a dl

(2) { F = H sin 5 =
a cos
—, I
^a\
>

dV
Z = Htane = "^ ;

dr

where V is the Magnetic potential, H the horizontal force, 8 the magnetic declina-
tion, 6 the dip, I the latitude of the place of observation, on a spherical earth of
radius a, and X the longitude, and r the distance from the earth's centre.
Gauss takes d\x for the element of the magnetism at (n, Ua, Xo), within the
Earth, and finds the action on a point in space (r, u, X) distant p from d\i:

_ c
w y-ri'f-.
P
dti

y/r^ — •>' 2rTo (cos u cos Mo +

dfi

sin m sin Mo cos (X — Xo) + r^

Accordingly with these spherical co-ordinates the function V may be ex-

panded into a converging series of solid spherical harmonics, involving sines and
cosines of u and X.

"The foundation of our investigation," says Gauss, "is the assumption that
the terrestrial magnetic force is the combined action of the magnetized particles
of the body of the earth," (p. 6). He conceives the magnetism to be due to the
separation of the fluids, but adds that Ampere's conception of galvanic currents
circulating about the atoms would serve equally well to explain the phenomena,
which are thus somewhat independent of the particular hypothesis involved.
By calculating the total magnetic moment of the globe Gauss finds that the
Earth has 8,464 trillion times more magnetism than the one pound standard bar
magnet used in his experiments. There would thus be required in the Earth's in-

terior 8,464 trillion of such magnets, aU having parallel magnetic axes, to produce
the magnetic action of the Earth in external space.
With uniform distribution throughout the, whole body of the globe this would
amount to very nearly eight bar magnets, more exactly 7.831, for each cubic
meter of the Earth's matter. Gauss expresses surprise at this result, and adds
that the more the bar magnets lack in parallelism, the stronger would have to be
the average magnetization of their parts, in order to produce the actual total
magnetic moment for the Earth shown by observation.
 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 37

If the mean density of the Earth be taken at 5.5, the average cubic meter of
the matter will weigh 5,500 kilograms. And as Gauss' eight one pound bar mag-
nets would thus weigh 4 kilograms, we may compute that the fractional part of
the Earth acting as magnetized bars with parallel axes is 5,500/4 = 1/1375. The
magnetism of the Earth is therefore exceedingly powerful, owing to the large size
of our planet, yet the intensity is feeble compared to that of some artificial mag-
nets.

It thus appears that a large fraction of the Earth's mass has the property
of saturated bar magnets; and hence we perceive that the Earth's magnetic field

ought to exert a strong influence over very considerable regions of space. The
magnetic field is thus everywhere well defined.
On general principles we may be quite sure that the Earth is not filled with
an artificial distribution of magnetized steel bar magnets having an average density
of eight pounds per cubic meter throughout the globe. We are rather to view
this average portion of the Earth's mass (1/1375) as having magnetic qualities
in virtue of the atoms lined up in parallel planes, just as in Ampere's theory of
Magnetism.
In that case we may regard the magnetism of the Earth as due to the waves
proceeding from these atoms in parallel planes. If the waves penetrate through
the globe, all the observed results will follow, and we shall have a complete theory
of the Earth's magnetism, based on the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory.
This modern Wave-Theory of Terrestrial Magnetism is illustrated by the
accompanying figure, in which the directions of the rotations of the wave elements
are shown at every point of the globe. To get a view of the waves going out of

the Earth at any point, it suffices to extend the rotations here shown, till they
can be connected into waves of the type discussed in Bulletin No. 2.

Accordingly, the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory gives a satisfactory ex-

planation of Gauss' theory of Terrestrial Magnetism. And nothing now remains

but to examine the conditions underlying that theory, and then to apply the
theory to the elucidation of particular phenomena. Heretofore such phenomena
as the Aurora and Magnetic Storms have almost completely bewildered the in-
vestigator. Owing to the lack of connection with any common cause, it has
been impossible for the investigator to open up an effective line of attack on the
puzzling problems presented. Thus it is not remarkable that ^Cosmical Mag-
netism has been a subject of the utmost obscurity, and the greatest natural phil-
osophers have labored in vain to penetrate the mystery of the underlying physical
forces. Even to the luminous mind of Gauss the Aurora Borealis always pre-

sented a puzzling appearance — eine rdthselhofte ErscJwinung. (p. 50.)

38 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

III The Theory of a Uniformly Magnetized Sphere Shows that the

Magnetism of the Earth Depends upon the Combined Action of
THE Magnetic Matter Throughout the Globe

The magnetism of the Earth is roughly that of a uniformly magnetized sphere,

as we see by simple calculation.

1. li I, m, n be the direction cosines of the direction of magnetization at

any point, we have for components of the magnetization due to the element
Idxdydz

w ' I'fx© +"!(') +4© i*"**

And by integration we obtain the potential of the whole body at the external
point p

<^) " = ///' \ 'W + -I© + »£© \

^^*^

2. By introducing the components of magnetization at (x, y, z)

(6) A = II ,
B = Im ,
C = In ,

we obtain an expression in terms of the magnetic components A, B, C:

3. Let x' , y' , z' denote the co-ordinates of the external point p, so that

{x - x'Y +{y- y'Y + (2 - z'y'Y

Then, the expression (7) may be written

(9) ^ Q = _ (^ _|, + B A, + C^)jffldxdyd.

since changes in x, y, z do not affect the terms A, B, C, and the operators e-tj j-/ >

r-7 here placed outside of the signs of integration,

 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 39

4. Let V denote the potential of a uniform distribution of electricity of

volume density unity throughout the region occupied by the magnet. Then by
the usual expression for the potential we have for any external point p

V =
fff I dxdydz (10)

5. And therefore (9) becomes

,dV j,dV „dV

y
r, = - A^-, - B—-, - C-T-,
dx dy dz
,,,,
(11)

Now let I', m', n' be the direction cosines of the outward drawn normal to the
magnet at any element dS of its surface, and we may write the potential at the
external point:

Q = // (Al' + Bm' + Cn') -/S =

ff l^^^ (12)

For by (6) we have

Al' + Bm' + Cn' = 1(11' + mm' + nn') = I cosd , (13)

where 6 is the angle between the direction of magnetization and the outward nor-
mal to the element dS of surface.

6. If the uniformly magnetized body be a sphere, of magnetic intensity Z,

equation (10) reduces to the volume integral for a sphere of radius a, acting on a
point distant r,

F = J^a^Q (14)

7. When the magnetization is taken to be in the direction of the axis of x

we have to calculate the intensity by taking the differential coefficient of the

potential in respect to x:

QT ^y
dx
^ !T/'2;^
\rj
. ,r COS 6
r
,^^^

X
since cos 6
r

8. Accordingly it appears that the potential at any external point is the

same as that of a magnetic particle of moment ^-n-a^I at the centre of the sphere.
40 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

But as applied to the Earth this result has no well defined physical meaning.
For since the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory shows that magnetism is due to the
action of waves, it is natural to hold that these waves can proceed only from the
magnetic matter of the Earth, and therefore not from that at the centre only, but
from magnetic elements scattered throughout the mass of the globe, and every-
where acting in concert, owing to the parallelism of their atomic planes.

9. Thus any hypothesis that the magnetism of the globe can rest on the
properties of the matter located in a particular region is inadmissible. For al-

though Gauss showed that mathematically the external magnetic potential might
result from an unlimited number of internal distributions of magnetic density,
yet the physical conditions now imposed by the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory
exclude every distribution not consistent with the laws of the internal density of
the Earth.

10. For if Magnetism be due to wave

must depend on the laws of
action, it

the internal density of the globe for the required parallel atomic waves; and as
the planes of the atoms in cosmical masses must follow the laws of chance, the
magnetic field about such bodies can only be determined by the laws of internal
density for all Thus we see that no other view can be held than that
the matter.
of Gauss, who justly assumed that the terrestrial magnetic force represents the
combined action of the magnetized particles of the body of the Earth.

IV The Relation between "Magnetic Storms" and the Sunspot Cycle

Explained by Electrodynamic Disturbances Incident to
Mass-Movements in the Sun

1. Hoping to find an intra-mercurial planet in transit over the Sun's disc,

Hbinrich Schwabe of Dessau in 1826 began to make systematic daily counts

of sunspots, and after seventeen years of patient watching (1843) was able to
recognize in these fluctuating phenomena a regular periodicity of about ten years'
duration. This is the sun spot cycle of which subsequent investigators have
fixed the period more accurately at about 11.1 years.

2. In 1851-52 four independent investigators — Dr. John Lamont of Munich,

GeneralEdward Sabine of London, Dr. Alfred Gautier of Geneva, and Dr.
Rudolf Wolf of Berne, — each recognized and aided in establishing a cycle in

the fluctuations of Terrestrial Magnetism, also having a period of about ten years.
It was found to have the same length as Schwabe's Sunspot cycle, and agreed
 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 41

with it phase for phase over more than a century. Subsequent investigators
have fixed this magnetic period also at 11.1 years.

3. The phases are shown to be in such perfect agreement with those of the
sunspot cycle that it has long been regarded as certain that the two phenomena —
Sunspots and "Magnetic Storms" — are physically connected and mutually
dependent on a common cause. The problem presented to the natural phil-
osopher has been to find the physical cause underlying both phenomena.

4. The accompanying graphical illustration of the sunspot cycle and asso-

ciated "Magnetic Storms," from Young's General Astronomy, represents the
results of the researches of Dr. Rudolph Wolf of Zurich, who long studied the
relations between these phenomena.

5. The agreement between the frequency of sunspots and the average daily
range of the fluctuations in the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetism
is seen to be complete. This means that when sunspots are most frequent, the range
of the daily fluctuations of the Magnetic needle augments, and vice versa. And this
dependence found to be estabhshed by records extending over
is many sunspot
cycles, since the year 1770, with some records runninp: as far back as 1680.

6. cannot be denied that a physical connection exists be-

Accordingly, it

tween sunspots and "Magnetic Storms." The question then arises: What is
the nature of this connection? Many investigators have sought the physical
cause for such a relationship, but as yet no one has succeeded in finding one which
is rational and satisfactory.

The explanation now put forward was developed in 1914, but has not here-
tofore been published, although communicated to one of the oldest and most
learned of the European Scientific Societies in 1915.

7. It is now shown that Gravity is an electrodynamic action, depending on

waves traveling with the velocity of Light. The minor terms of Weber's law
provide for the induction and the change of the induction, with variation of dis-

tance. From the form of this law, we see that relative motion will involve in-

duction* between different parts of the system. And this will apply not only to
the orbital motion of the Earth, but also to internal mass-movements in the Sun.

*
This effect of relative motion is largely analogous to that resulting from Doppler's
but in addition to the change in the wave-length, there are waves developed
Principle,
which may be parallel and have a common direction, as in Magnetism and in the Induced
Current.
42 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

8. If a solar prominence of large size is ejected, so that a considerable mass

of matter is in relative motion, as respects the Earth, it is obvious that the Sun's
magnetic field will be disturbed; and as the Sun's magnetic field exerts an influ-

ence on the Earth's magnetic field, through the infinite system of interpenetrating
waves, there will thus arise a trembling of our magnetic needles while the waves
due to the solar disturbance are passing the Earth.

9. Not only will the solar disturbance directly derange the Sun's magnetic
field and thus affect the Earth's field, but also send irregular gravitational elec-

trodynamic waves to the Earth. The passing of these irregular electrodynamic

waves through the Earth — combining as they do at every point with the waves
due to the atoms which produce the Earth's magnetic field — wiU
-
indirectly dis-
turb the Earth's magnetic field, because of the mere irregularity of the wave
commotions going on.

10. In this way we explain the greater amplitude of the daily range of the
magnetic needle during the maximum of a sunspot period. For the more violent
the solar outbreaks, the less damping of the waves from the matter above the
reversing layer, and the more violent and intense the wave commotions passing
the Earth; and thus the greater range in the amplitude of the daily fluctuations of
the magnetic needle.Hence the exact correspondence between the curves for the
"magnetic storms" and the sunspot cycle, as shown by Wolf's investigations.

11. It might be objected that solar prominence outbreaks are not always
followed by magnetic storms on the Earth, and that the theory thus proves too
much. Our theory does not, indeed, require this, but only specifies such response
in the Earth's magnetic field when the electrodynamic waves passing the Earth

are so irregular and develop such irregular induction in the air as to produce un-

symmetrical magnetic stress in the Earth's field, so that the needle swings to and
fro, to wider amplitudes than usual. It is clear that not all solar outbursts would
produce such terrestrial effects. In many cases the matter in motion would have
little or no relative motion, as respects the Earth — being largely normal to the
Earth's radius vector. In other cases the outbursts would produce only minor
derangement of the lines of force — or axes of wave propagation — in the Sun's
magnetic field, and thus exert little effect on the magnetic field of the Earth.

12. Accordingly, the fluctuation in the average daily range of the Magnetic
Needle should have only a very general connection with the curve of the sunspot
cycle — not a direct connection in all details, as some have supposed should occur.
The Wolf curves are therefore in satisfactory agreement with the Electrodynamic
 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 43

Wave-Theory. It is very interesting to notice that this Theory would explain

Sunspots themselves (with corresponding extension of the Corona) as eruptive

outbreaks, due to the Combined Inductive Action of the Planets and Comets,
under Weber's Law, the cycle sometimes exceeding the period of Jupiter, and
sometimes falling short of it, owing to the modifying influence of the other Planets.

This cause of sunspots was suggested, in the unpubUshed Memoir of 1914, as

an extension of the researches of Hertz, 1880, " On Induction in Rotating
Spheres." The analogy is very striking, and the proof has seemed more and
more conclusive, but the subject of the physical cause of sunspots is beyond
the scope of the present Bulletin.

V W. Grylls Adams' Researches of 1881 on "Magnetic Storms" in

Various Parts of the Earth Show that These Commotions are
Simultaneous as if Depending on Mass-Movements in the Sun

1. Having now shown why the amplitude of the average daily range of the
horizontal component of the magnetic needle is greater* at sunspot maximum
and smaller at sunspot minimum than during the years between maximum and
minimum, it only remains to prove by terrestrial observations that such wave
commotions actually come from the Sun. If they do, these abnormal tremblings
of the needle should occur almost simultaneously throughout the globe.

2. The accompanying plate is from the Philosophical Transactions of the

Royal Society for 1881, which contains an important paper by the late Professor
W. Grylls Adams, brother of the celebrated J. C. Adams, theoretical discoverer

of Neptune. It will be noticed that Adams has here set to common Greenwich
Mean Time the records of magnetic disturbances taken at many stations in all
parts of the world. The suddenness of the changes in several instances is re-

markable. The tremors affect all the components of the Earth's Magnetism,
within a few minutes of the same instant, throughout the globe. This record
shows that there is a magnetic wave commotion going on in every part of the
globe, as if it originated from disturbances in the Sun, and had been propagated
to the Earth with the velocity of light.

3. It is from just such "Magnetic Storms" as this that Dr. Rudolph Wolf
derived his curve of correspondence between "Magnetic Storms" and the sunspot
cycle, as given in the preceding section. The nature of the phenomenon is thus
made clear, and the physical connection firmly established.

* Because of the Induction Effects, described above.

44 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

4. Probably this reasoning will be convincing to most persons, but if there

be those who doubt our conclusions they may be referred to the account of the

spectroscopic and magnetic observations taken by Professor C. A. Young's

eclipse party, Aug. 3-5, 1872, at Sherman, Colorado. Certain eruptions in the
Sun gave bright lines in the spectrum and were simultaneous with tremblings
of the magnetic needle independently noted by the magnetic observer at Sher-
man, and afterwards found to have been noted also at Greenwich, England, five
thousand miles away.

5. As Young and the magnetic observers worked quite independently of

one another (cf. The Sun, 1902, pp. 166-168) this coincidence in the visual appear-

ance of spectral bright lines, when incandescent matter is raised above the reversing
layer, and the coming on of a notable "Magnetic Storm" is not accidental. It
really shows the true physical connection between "magnetic storms" and the
eruptions in the solar atmosphere.

6. It should be noted that just as the Frauenhofer become bright lines

when the emitting matter is raised above the reversing layer, so also will the mag-
netic waves from the Sun's atoms be of increased intensity when the emitting
matter is above the reversing layer. This increased freedom from damping, and
the relative motion of the disturbed matter causes a readjustment in the infinite
systems of waves, with a trembling of the needle on the Earth, which may be
recorded on the magnetographs.

7. As an observational proof that magnetic waves regularly come from the

Sun, yet may have their induction effects damped and reduced in intensity by
clouds and similar terrestrial objects, we refer to the well-known observations by
Professor Nipher {Transactions of the Academy of Sciences, of St. Louis, 1913-16).
These observations are so definite that they admit of not the slightest doubt.

8. If the clouds may exert an appreciable influence in reducing atmospheric

induction and thus damping these magnetic waves, it follows that the Earth's
shadow at night will be still more effective; yet the greater wave commotions in
the Sun are powerful enough to give a conspicuous terrestrial effect in the Aurora,
"Magnetic Storms," and "Earth Currents," as explained below.

VI The Physical Cause op the Aurora Borealis

The Aurora Borealis is a very striking phenomenon, but remarkably obscure
as to the physical cause on which it depends. In order to get at the probable
cause of the Aurora, we point out a series of interesting facts.
Fig. 1. Graphical Representation of Gauss' Theory that Terrestrial Magnetism
dei)ends on the combined action of the magnetized particles of the
body of the Earth.

Fig. 2. The Magnetic Field about the Earth, showing contour lines of equal Dip.
 «!
»«!
JBiiBaBaaaHriBaBBBB
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iiBBBBBIIBHBBBBBBIVHBBBBBB
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BBBBBBBBBIIBfiBBIIililBliBBBBBBBI

BBBBBBBIIBBKBEg^aBIIBBBIIBBB BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBQ^SDaXCdfiBBBI
iHHniaHmainHHaKMBi
nUBBBBHBBBIIBBBIinBBBBKBBI
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BBBBBBBBBBBBBBSIBBBBBBBBBI flBBBII
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBI aflaaBBBaaaBBaBaaBBBBBBNiaaBibibbbI
BBBBBBBBBBBBBHBBBBBBBBBBI klBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBUBBBI BBBBBI
BBBBBBBBBBBBBUBMBBBBBBBBI KBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBMBBI
raBBBBBBBBBB'flB!(IBBBBBBBBIiBi1BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB!BBBBBBBI
EZZSnBBBBBBBBBNiBBBBBBBrfiHnBBBBBBBBBRSBBBBBBBBnBBJSBBBBBBI
BBBBBHBBBBBBnBBKBBBZil^SiaBrMBnBBBBBBBBBrjniilBBaSi^BBUBBBBBBBBBI
BBBBBHBBBBBBlJBBBIiliBBBBBBCIBBBBBBBBBBnBBUBBBBBBBVBBBnBBBBBL
BBBBBBBIBBBBilBBBBMBBBBBnBBBKSIBBBBBBnBBBSBBBBBBBBBBlNBBBBBBI
BBKlBBBBBBBMBBBBnaBBBBMBBBBnnBBBBBfiBBBISBBBBBnBBBBHBBBBBBl
MBBBBBP

Fig. 3.
IB^iriill iBEia'ji
!nBBBBBi
^BBBBBKI
BaBBBBBBlBiaBBBBBB|BaSiBBBBB|flBBBnBBBBBBBBBBn«BBBBBBBBBBBKil
RIIBBBBBBBBIiBBBBBBBflBBBBBBBBBBBBBIBaBBBBBBBBBBaiBBBBBBI
ngiEa«iaBBBBBE0a!lBBBBBHiSy31
IBBBBgiE

Wolf's Sun-Spot Numbers, with associated "Magnetic Storms."

Fig. 4. A typical view of the Aurora Borealis, showing extensive curtain, with ribbon folds at the lower border,
and stars \'i8ible through the illumination. An Aurora of this general aspect was observed by the
author while measuring double stars at the Washburn Observatorj-, Madison, Wisconsin, Sept. 29,
1895.
TorofUM Hp

7,1,-k^-WBU HP

BoLauuiL. HF

CoLabau H.P —

TcronXx). V P

Melbourne H.F

Son FernajTjjU).H.F-

Vherinxx. H.F

He^' H F

Aew V F
St Petersburg V.P

SU"V/>UjrsL VF

Bojljiwiay VF

mfU
Fig. (i. Comparison of the observed Rays in a Tj'pical Solar Corona with the Lines of Force in
Gavhw' Theory. In his studies on the Motion of Mars, 1609, Kepleh concluded that the
Hun riid Planets are [Magnetic (Opera Omnia, III, p. 37), and the evidence has since become
decisive.
 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 45

1. The coincidence of the rays of the Aurora with the direction of the mag-
netic needle. This is one of the most striking proofs of the relationship between
the Aurora and "Magnetic Storms," which are also observed to recur in similar
periodic cycles. So long ago as 1714 Dr. Edmund Halley regarded the Aurora as
a magnetic phenomenon (Phil. Trans., 1714-16. No. 341). Naturally modern
data were not then available to lend such general support to the theory as might
establish its truth.

2. When a great "Magnetic Storm" occurs it usually is felt throughout

a large part of the globe, and the Aurora frequently is visible in different countries,

and over wide areas of continental extent, sometimes in both hemispheres. It is

found that the "Magnetic Storms" are associated with "Earth Currents," or
electrical disturbances so strong that occasionally the telegraph lines may be
operated by them without the use of the regular batteries.

3. The "Earth Currents" associated with "Magnetic Storms" and Aurora

Borealis may be most easily explained by supposing that there is electric induction

in the globe due to passing electrodynamic waves incident to mass-movements

in the Sun. This induction would generate galvanic currents in closed circuits —
such as telegraph and cable lines — and also produce intensified waves from the
atoms of magnetic matter such as iron, steel, and similar substances.

4. Now Faraday showed that all substances are magnetic, and thus the
result of the passing of waves incident to mass-movements in the Sun would in-

volve the whole globe in a ceaseless magnetic tremor. And owing to the unequal
conductivity of the globe these moving waves would thus lead to an apparent
development of free electricity. In the atmosphere the electric disturbances
incident to the passing waves would take on the form of light; for the incessant
wave flow, with the resulting electric inductions on large masses of air and clouds,

would lead to slight discharges of free electricity through the highly rarified air,

as in the Geissler tube experiments.

5. It is impossible to doubt that when the air is traversed by such waves, of

surging electrical mass oscillations, the disturbances or stresses produced would

generate light in some form. The Geissler tube experiments show not only the
general type of these oscillations, but also their enormous variety, with changes
of color, which are also characteristic of the Aurora. This is one of the surest
proofs that the Aurora is an electrical oscillation with visible discharge due
to the passage of electrodynamic waves through the higher regions of the
Atmosphere.
46 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

6. An additional proof not only that the Aurora is an electrical phenomenon

but that it depends on commotions in the Sun may be gathered from the periodici-
ties in the two phenomena.

(a) The Aurora has the 11 -year cycle characteristic of sunspots and "Mag-
netic Storms."

(b) The semi-annual period in the Aurora, with greatest Auroral Activity
in March and September, and least activity in June and December, seems to in-

dicate that this fluctuation depends on the spots in the equatorial region of the
Sun which are most directly exposed to the Earth in March and September.

(c) There is also a periodicity in the Aurora of 25.93 days, which corresponds
so closely to the period of the Sun's mean axial rotation, that we are compelled
to believe it depends on the return of spotted areas of the Sun to our meridian,
and thus disturbs the electrical equilibrium of the globe in this average period.
The researches of Maunder {Monthly Notices, 1904) confirm this result from
another point of view.

Carrington found from the observation of sunspots at the solar equator

a period of 24.9 days, but that in latitude 30°, the period was lengthened to about
26.4 days. by Duner,
Spectroscopic measurements of the Sun's rotation period
Crew, and other observers agree closely with Carrington's periods from sun-
spots. As the area of maximum solar activity is somewhat nearer the equator
than 30° heliocentric latitude, we may take the Auroral period of 25.93 days as
the time of the mean solar rotation.

7. Now suppose wave commotions to occur from bodily movements of

matter in the Sun. The magnetic field of the Sun will thereby be disturbed,
and a reaction generated in the Earth's magnetic field. The resulting solar wave
commotion wiU travel towards the Earth with the velocity of light; and the
magnetic waves incessantly receding from the Earth wiU also be set into irregular
motion and the normal calm of the magnetic field of the Earth wiU be
disturbed.

8. As the magnetic potential of the globe is greatest towards the magnetic

poles, in accordance with Humboldt's law of the increase in higher latitudes
(cf. Cosmos, Vol. I, p. 179, Bohn's Translation) it will follow that when the wave
commotion incident to the outbreaks in the Sun are violent enough to elicit luminos-
ity in our rarified atmosphere — as in electric discharge through the rare gases
of a Geissler tube — the wiU appear
fight on our northern horizon and move
rapidly southward along the fines of force of the Earth's magnetic field.
 DISCOVERIES IN C08MICAL MAGNETISM 47

9. For the wave commotion will naturally have a rise in intensity to a max-
imum, then a decline; and the luminosity will first appear in the region of greatest
magnetic potential furthest north; and as the maximum approaches, the luminosity
will travel southward to the fields of smaller magnetic potential. And as the
disturbance declines, the streamers of the Aurora may drop back to the northern
horizon.

10. This is exactly what is frequently observed in the celebrated phenomenon

of the Aurora Borealis. We thus conclude that an Aurora is due to passing mag-
netic waves incident to internal commotions in the Sun. Humboldt gives the
following description of a typical Aurora, based largely on Argelander's obser-
vations at Konigsberg:
"Low down in the distant horizon, about the part of the heavens which is

intersected by the magnetic meridian, the sky which was previously clear is at
once overcast. A dense wall or bank of cloud seems to rise gradually higher
and higher until it attains an elevation of eight or ten degrees. The colour of the
dark segment passes into brown or violet and stars are visible through the cloudy
;

stratum, as when a dense smoke darkens the sky. A broad brightly luminous
arch, first white, then yeUow, encircles the dark segment; but as the brilliant

arch appears subsequently to the smoky gray segment, we cannot agree with
Argelander in ascribing the latter to the effect of mere contrast with the bright
luminous margin." . . .

"The luminous arch remains sometimes for hours together flashing and
kindling in ever-varying undulations, before rays and streamers emanate from
it, and shoot up to the zenith. The more intense the discharges of the northern
light, the more bright is the play of colours, through all the varying gradations
from violet and bluish white to green and crimson. Even in ordinary electricity

excited by friction the sparks are only coloured in cases where the explosion is

very violent after great tension. The magnetic columns of flame rise either singly

from the luminous arch, blended with black rays similar to thick smoke, or simul-
taneously in many opposite points of the horizon, uniting together to form a
flickering sea of flame, whose brilliant beauty admits of no adequate description,
as the luminous waves are every moment assuming new and varying forms. The
intensity of this light is at times so great, that Lowenorn (on the 29th of June,
1786) recognized the coruscation of the polar light in bright sunshine." {Cosmos,
Vol. I pp. 189-190 — Bohn's Translation).

11. From this description, which corresponds with the results of my own
observations, it seems clear that the well-known curtain appearance is due to the
48 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

escape of slight charges of free electricity under the varying electrical potential
produced by the passing of electrodynamic waves incident to bodily disturb-
ances in the Sun. The crown sometimes developed in the Aurora is a particular
form of this luminosity so projected as to make a central canopy high in the
heavens.

12. Accordingly, it appears that all the leading phenomena of the Aurora
Borealis may be easily explained by the present Electrodynamic Wave-Theory.
The result is a harmonious view of many puzzling phenomena of Terrestrial
Magnetism. It accords with Weber's fundamental law of Electrodynamic
Action, and confirms Halley's suggestion of 1714 that the Aurora is a magnetic
phenomenon.

13. It has long been recognized that in its geographical distribution the Aurora
hovers about the cold poles of the Earth — doubtless because, as Exner showed, the
fall of the atmospheric electrical potential is some fifteen times greater in the zones
of the cold poles than at the terrestrial equator. An electric phenomenon de-
pending on this fall of the potential, like the change of the Induction, under the
varying influence of the Sun's Electrodynamic Waves, is thus more intense in
winter and in high latitudes than in summer and in the equatorial regions of the

globe.

14. This view of the Aurora is borne out by the very delicate photographic
researches of Dr. Slipher recently recorded in Lowell Observatory Bulletin No. 79,
showing by actual observation that from June to November, 1916, there was
almost persistent Aurora in the sky near the horizon. It was recorded satisfactorily

even in Moonlight, but appeared plainest near the horizon, because this region of

the air is of greatest depth. The strength of the luminosity is increased by this

depth, because on the photographic plate the integral effect of the radiation
accumulates, when the electrical potential is changing in any layer, under the
progress of the Sun's diurnal influence.

15. The Aurora is therefore much more widely distributed geographically,

and a much more persistent phenomenon than was previously believed. Obviously
its full extent and persistence can be ascertained only by the sensitive plate of

the modern camera. The more spectacular classic phenomenon becomes visible
to the eye chiefly under the cold climates of the polar regions, and fluctuates in
cycles corresponding to the electrodynamic wave agitations in the Sun, as above
set forth.
 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 49

VII Kreil of Prague, 1841, and John Allen Broun, 1845, Independently
Detect a Lunar Influence upon the Magnetism of the Earth, which
Is Semi-Diurnal and Otherwise Follows the Laws of the Tides: the
Researches of Lloyd and Airy Confirm the Existence of a Lunar
Magnetic Tide, but Lloyd Misinterprets It

In 1841 Kreil of Prague laid before the Bohemian Society of Sciences evi-
dence of slight semi-diurnal changes in the magnetism of the Earth depending on
the influence of the Moon. He thus anticipated Schwabe's discovery of sunspot
periodicity by two years, and preceded Lamont's discovery of the corresponding
cycle in Terrestrial Magnetism by ten years; so that the new lunar magnetic
inequality was unexpected, and appeared the more remarkable because the period
was only half a lunar day.
Shortly after Kreil's discovery the same fact of a semi-diurnal inequality
in the Earth's magnetism depending on the Moon was independently noted by
the English investigator John Allen Broun, 1845, and fully confirmed by the
Edward Sabine.
researches of Sir
When attention was directed to the effect of the changing distance of the
Moon from the Earth, both Sabine and Broun found the variation is greater
for perigee than for apogee. According to Broun's careful analysis the mean
ratio of the apogee effect to the perigee effect is as 1 to 1.24 nearly. Looking into
the cause of this difference Broun notices that the distance of the half orbit near
apogee is to that about perigee very nearly as 1.07 to 1. He then remarks that
the cube of 1.07 is 1.23 nearly; hence it follows that the mean ranges of the curves
for the two halves of the lunar orbit are in the ratio of the inverse cube of the
distances from the Earth, as in the Theory of the Tides of the Sea.

Lloyd's Misleading Discussion of the Direct Magnetic Influence of the

Sun and Moon upon the Diurnal Variations of the Earth's Magnetism

In the Philosophical Magazine for March, 1858, Dr. Humphrey Lloyd,

Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University, and subsequently Provost of
Trinity College, Dublin, has a learned discussion, "On the Direct Magnetic In-
fluence of a Distant Luminary upon the Diurnal Variations of the Magnetic Force
at the Earth's Surface," which was afterwards reprinted as the concluding chapter
of his "Treatise on Magnetism," London, 1874 (Longmans, Green & Co.). Dr.
Lloyd's Treatise is a very useful work and doubtless has been of great service
to Science, but we shall here direct attention to certain false conclusions in the
50 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

article of 1858, which apparently misled Maxwell (Treatise on Electricity and

Magnetism, edition, 1892, §474, Vol. II. p. 136) and his successors in dealing with
problems of Terrestrial Magnetism.
Lloyd develops his analysis at some length, and shows from the equations
that the magnetic effect of the distant body "consists of two parts, one of which
is constant throughout the day, while the other varies with the hour angle of the
luminary." Although each of the parts varies inversely as the cube of the dis-

tance, of the magnetic body, he concludes that the variable part depending on
the hour angle of the luminary wiU give rise to a diurnal inequality.

Since the lunar variation has two maxima and two minima of nearly equal

magnitude in the twenty-four lunar hours, Lloyd concludes that "the 'phenomena
of the diurnal variation are not caused by the direct magnetic action of the Sun and
Moon." (p. 238.)

A just criticism of Lloyd's analysis may be made, in that he retained the

hour angle 6, in his expressions, (p. 235) instead of the angle 20 which occurs in
the expressions for the tide-generating potential, (Cf. Sir George Darwin's
Article Tides, Ency. Brit, 9th edition, §7, p. 357); but as Lloyd doubtless did
not suspect that there could be such a thing as a magnetic tide, probably this over-
sightwas unavoidable in the state of the subject existing more than half a century
ago. Lloyd closes his discussion by calling attention to Stoney's investigation
(Philosophical Magazine, Oct., 1861) showing that the maximum effect of the

Moon, supposed equally magnetic with the Earth bulk for bulk, upon a declina-
tion magnet would be less than one-tenth of a second.

The following tables embody the results of Lloyd's discussion of the mag-
netic observations at Dublin.

Owing to the above error of analysis, Lloyd could not interpret these results,
holding that the observed diurnal variations, with two maxima and two minima
of nearly equal magnitude in twenty-four lunar hours, are not caused by the
direct magnetic action of the Moon. He was thus misled, and in turn misled
Maxwell (Treatise, §474) and his successors.

Lunar Inequality of the Easterly Force at Dublin (Lloyd)

Lunar
Hours
 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 51

Lunar Inequality op the Easterly Force at Dublin (Lloyd) — Continued

Lunar
Year
Hours
52 DISCOVEKIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

How remarkable an argument Lloyd has here developed to establish the

existence of a magnetic Tide in the Earth may be readily seen by anyone familiar
with Sir George Darwin's discussion of the Path of a Pendulum as deflected
from the vertical by the tidal forces of the Moon, (Tides and Kindred Phenomena

of the Solar System, edition, 1898, p. 112). We reproduce here, for comparison,
Darwin's diagram of the path of the pendulum, when the Moon is north latitude
15°, and the observer in North latitude 30°.

12
S
Fig. 7. Darwin's Diagram of the semi-diurnal movements
of a pendulum

The lunar hours are indicated by the numbers marked along the successive posi-

tions of the pendulum.

The comparison however somewhat incomplete, because Darwin's diagram
is

gives the total forces which deflect the pendulum, while the analysis of Lloyd
gives only the components into which the Lunar Inequality of the Earth's Mag-
netism usually are divided.

Sir George Airy Alone Recognized the Lunar Magnetic Influence as a

True Magnetic Tide

It appears that among all his eminent contemporaries Sir George Airy
alone correctly interpreted this inequality, which he says is "a true lunar tide

ofmagnetism, occurring twice in the lunar day, and showing magnetic attraction
backward and forward in the line from the Red Sea to Hudson's Bay." (Treatise
on Magnetism, 1870, p. 206.)
 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 53

Airy adds that the lunar forces are considerably less than those which follow
the law of solar hours; the mean diurnal solar inequaUty being about 1/600 of
the horizontal force, while the lunar is about 1/12000. According to this, the
solar influence is approximately twenty times more powerful than that depending
on the Moon. This will cause no surprise in view of the magnetic waves now
shown to proceed from certain fields about the sunspots, and to come to us in the
form of undamped vibrations when the prominences project above the reversing
layer.

We have seen that this ebb and flow in the magnetism of the globe has been
actually observed, but its semi-diurnal character has been misinterpreted by
Lloyd and several other eminent investigators.
Now Newton's law of Gravitation will explain the ebb and flow of the sea,
but not the ebb and flow of the Earth's magnetism discovered by Keeil and
John Allen Broun. It is necessary to explain both phenomena, for in his First
Rule of Philosophy Newton says that we are to admit no more causes of natural
things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.
And thus, according to Newton's Rule, we are obliged to adopt Weber's Electro-
dynamic Law, to explain the Magnetic Tide, by wave action in reference to poles
and propagated in time, thus giving what Gauss called a construirbare Vorstellung
of the established phenomena of Nature.

VIII The Series of Periodic Fluctuations in the Magnetism op the

Earth Shown to Depend on the Sun and Moon, and Explicable
BY the Influence op their Cosmical Magnetism

To convince ourselves that there are numerous fluctuations in the Earth's

Magnetism depending on the Sun and Moon, we need only read attentively the
well-known discussion of Terrestrial Magnetism by the late Professor Balfour
Stewart, in the Article Meteorology, Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition.

1. It is there shown that there is a solar diurnal variation of declination

changing slowly through the year, but with the form of the curve depending on
the latitude of the place of observation. There is also brought out the semi-
annual inequality or difference from the whole year's mean of the two half yearly
means.

2. Among the recognized cosmical periods established by investigators are:

(a) A yearly period,

(6) A period of 11 years — the sunspot cycle,
54 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM

(c) The 18.6 year period — which is the cycle of the Moon's nodes,
(d) A period of a Lunar Synodic Month, 29.53 days,
(e) A period of 25.93 days, the Sun's mean rotation period,
(/) A semi-diurnal magnetic tide depending on the Sun; and also a
smaller but very definite semi-diurnal magnetic tide depending on the Moon,
by Kreil
discovered at Prague in 1841, and independently detected by John
Allen Broun, 1845, as set forth above.

3. All these periodic changes are small compared to the residual constant
of the Earth's magnetism, which changes but slowly or not at Thus as Gauss
all.

first showed in 1838, the body of the magnetism of the globe depends on the par-
ticles within the Earth. The small periodic variations, on the other hand, arise
mainly from the external influence exerted by the Sun and Moon, through their
systems of magnetic waves.

4. It is commonly stated that the daily variation of the Earth's magnetism

is not such as could be explained by the magnetism of the Sun itself, (cf. Jeans,
Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, p. 402.) As shown in the fore-

going section, this original view of Lloyd is based on a false premise. It seems
certain that with this correction of Lloyd's mode of analysis, the daily variation

in the Earth's magnetism may Thus the difficulties encoun-

be fully explained.
tered by Maxwell, Chree, Stewart, Schuster, Jeans, and others entirely
disappear.

5. This result confirms John Allen Broun's discovery that the diurnal
variation depending on the Moon follows very accurately the law of the inverse
cube of the Moon's distance. Broun remarks that "the ratio of the Moon's
mean distance from the Earth in the half orbit about apogee is to that in the half
orbit about perigee nearly as 1.07 to 1; as the cube of 1.07 is 1.23 nearly, we see
that the mean range of the curves for the two distances are in the ratio of the

inverse cubes of the Moon's distance from the Earth, as in the theory of the tides."
(Stewart's Article Meteorology, Ency. Brit., 9th edition, p. 179.)
As Broun had observed the Lunar magnetic effects to be as 1 to 1.24, and
Sabine had found similar results, he naturally regarded the verification of this
tidal law in the lunar semi-diurnal variation as very important. With the above
correction of Lloyd's error of analysis, this result of Broun shows conclusively
that all the diurnal effects observed can be explained by the magnetism of the

Sim and Moon.

6. It is not strange therefore that in his celebrated Article on Terrestrial

Magnetism, §139, Balfour Stewart recognized that as the Moon's magnetic

 DISCOVERIES IN COSMICAL MAGNETISM 55

influence follows as nearly as possible Broun's law of the inverse cube of the
distance from the Earth, it is impossible to refrain from associating this magnetic
influence either directly or indirectly with something having the type of tidal
action. Stewart points out that Airy found a similar semi-diurnal inequaUty
depending on the Sun in the Greenwich records, and A. Adams found correspond-
ing "Earth Currents" to be induced in the crust of the globe at the corresponding
hours.

Conclusion

many mysteries in Cosmical Magnetism, it only remains

After this review of
to add that as the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory fully accounts for the periodic
fluctuations in the magnetism of the Earth, it must be held to rest on true laws
of Nature. Otherwise would not be possible to explain so many observed
it

periodic changes in the magnetism of the globe. Heretofore these variations

have seemed so utterly mysterious as to completely bewilder the natural philosopher.
It is now clearly established that Magnetism is due to electrodynamic waves,
which travel in free space with the velocity of light, but are propagated less rapidly

through solid masses.

Any view that Gravitation is an isolated force, entirely disassociated from

the other forces of Nature, is wholly untenable. Weber's law explains how
electrodynamic action is propagated in time by means of the waves we have shown
to underly Magnetism in general.
As Magnetism is a form of attraction to poles while Gravitation is central,
the two actions are related, and it is obvious that the waves from the atoms of
the heavenly bodies should give rise to both Cosmical Magnetism and Universal
Gravitation.

T. J. J. SEE

Starlight on Loutre,
Montgomery City, Missouri, June 6, 1917.
 Issued July 9, 1917

PUBLISHERS :

THOS. p. NICHOLS & SON CO., Lynn, Mass., U. S. A.

WM. WESLEY & SON, London

© A. HERMANN ET FILS, Paris
 RESULTS OF RESEARCHES
ON THE

ELECTRODYNAMIC WAVE-THEORY OF PHYSICAL FORCES

BULLETIN NO. 4

THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES,

BASED ON THE PROPAGIATION OF ELECTRODYNAMIC
WAVES IN RIGHT LINES OR IN CURVES CONFORMING
TO FERMAT'S LAW OF MINIMUM PATH AND THE
PRINCIPLE OF LEAST ACTION.

By T. J. J. SEE

I Introductory Remarks

In his celebrated History of the Inductive Sciences, Volume I, Whewell shows

that the chief conditions 'prerequisite for the development of true Sciences are clearly
steadily applied
defined ideas, which are appropriate to the phenomena of Nature,
to well determined facts of observation. It was the neglect of these conditions that

caused the failure of the physical sciences among the Greeks.

He also shows that during the Middle Ages there were enormous Stationary
years, during which no
Periods, sometimes amounting to more than a thousand
realadvance was made, owing to the indistinctness of ideas then prevalent among
the Arabian commentators on Greek Science, and among
European Schoolmen
erudition and the unprofit-
long accustomed to the mere pohsh of scholastic
in physical science such as
able subtleties of dialectic rather than real research
would have appealed to Archimedes, Newton or Gauss.
Whewell upon own age, through
In view of the deep impression made by
his

his luminous exposition of the methods of Archimedes and Newton, one would
such indistinctness of ideas, because this
not have anticipated a reappearance of
Arabians than to our own time.
would be more appropriate to the epoch of the
reappearance of these indistinct ideas
Least of all should we have expected the
of years, is so well known and
in Astronomy, the history of which, for thousands

(57)
58 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES

SO instructive to the investigator. Yet, wonderful to relate, this unexpected

event has happened!
We refer to the mystical speculations of Einstein in his General Theory of
Relativity. He proposes a modification of the law of Gravitation, but does it in

such patch-work fashion, that it leaves Gravitation without appropriate con-

nection with the recognized laws of Electrodynamics, and thus introduces into
Nature the most complete discontinuity.
As Electrodynamic Action rests on universal experience in Electricity and
Magnetism, it cannot be that we have one kind of attraction in such cases, and
a totally different kind of attraction for the heavenly bodies. This would be like
the practice of inventing special aethers for special needs, which Maxwell justly
denounces as unphilosophic {Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3d edition,

Vol. II, §761, p. 431).

As regards Einstein's Theory some of his English followers seem to have
overlooked what Bottlinger points out in his Munich Prize Inaugural Disser-
tation, p. 48, (Troemer's Universitats Buchhandlung, Freiburg, 1912) namely, that
was prevalent among
recently the view physicists that Gravitation is an Electro-
dynamic phenomenon, but no positive results have attended the efforts to con-

ceive Gravitation as an Electrodynamic Action, and Professor Einstein found

Gravity so fundamentally different from Electrodynamics that more recently
he had quite turned away from an Electrodynamic explanation.
Thus having failed to connect this chief force of Nature with Electrodynamics,
as he long sought to do, Einstein developed a made-to-order General Theory of
Relativity, couched in such seductive analysis that it received some favor in Ger-
many, was thence transplanted to Holland, and finally welcomed in England —
notwithstanding the fact that the underlying ideas clearly are inconsistent with
the sound physical basis considered essential by both Newton and Whewell,
but now overlooked by certain mathematicians in the Royal Astronomical So-
ciety.

For example, it is stated by Professor De Sitter in his authoritative review

of Einstein's Theory {Monthly Notices, Oct., 1916, p. 702) that Gravitation is

"not a force" but a "property of space."

Itwould appear that the present author's well known aversion to such mys-
ticism as this must be shared also by the more experienced investigators in Eng-
land; for on January 28, 1917, one of the most eminent of the Cambridge math-
ematicians wrote as follows:
"I wish the perihelion of Mercury could be resolved new
similarly (to the
work on the Lunar Fluctuations). Otherwise we have an unlimited number of
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 59

ingenious kinds of relativity on our hands; which will be remarkable for self-

contradiction of the principle that everything is relative."

It is just such confusion as this that I am laboring to get rid of.

In the Observatory for December, 1916, the present writer has made some
criticisms which should be emphasized. It is pointed out that Professor De Sitter
of Leiden dwells on the analysis of Einstein, but quite ignores the physical
problem of explaining the stupendous forces at work.

"1. In the Aether of Space, pp. 112-126, Sir Oliver Lodge shows from
the recognized laws of mechanics that the pull of the Earth on the Moon is equiva-
lent to the breaking strength of a steel column 400 miles in diameter, or a forest
of five million million weightless pillars each a square foot in cross section — the
tenacity of the steel being thirty tons to the square inch."

"2. In the same way Sir Oliver Lodge shows (p. 130) that the pull of the
Sun on the Earth is equivalent to the tenacity of a forest of weightless steel pillars
each eleven inches in diameter, acting on every square foot of a hemispherical
section of the globe — the steel again having the breaking strength of thirty tons
to the square inch."

"Do these impressive results indicate that gravitation is 'not a force' but
only a 'property of space'?"
"Newton was weU aware of the difficulty of explaining gravitation, and
although he was unable to assign the cause of this force, he very properly says
in the General Scholium to the Principia (1713) that it must proceed from a cause
which penetrates to the very centres of the Sun and planets without suffering the
least diminution of its force. If it were a 'property of space', how could it be
definitely and accurately directed to the centres of the Sun and planets? It

obviously is so clearly an influence exerted by matter that one is astonished at

this talk of a 'property of space'.* Such discussion shows the extent to which
purely mathematical reasoning may be misapplied by those who ignore appro-
priate physical considerations."
"In this connection the reader might be referred to Whewell's History of
the Inductive Sciences, Vol. I, Chapters I and II, where he shows the cause of the

failure of the physical science of the Greeks: namely, that although they were
keen observers of nature and reasoned very acutely, their ideas were not appro-
priate to the facts. No mischief is more wide spread in modern science than
*If gravity were a "property of space," there would be no reason why the attraction
should increase with the mass, and thus Newton's law of direct proportionality to mass
would be violated, so as to change entirely the recognized foundations of Physical Science.
60 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

reasoning on false premises, though Aristotle warned us against this practice

2,200 years ago, and Newton emphasized the same caution again and again."
"It is the belief of many experienced investigators that the whole Doctrine

of Relativity rests on a false basis, and some day be cited as an illustration

will

of foundations laid in quicksand. Dozens of books have appeared on the sub-

ject. Thus our problem to-day is not merely to discover Truth, but to discover
a way out of an ensnaring mesh of errors."
'Tn view of these facts even the most aetherial pure mathematician ought
to realize the impossibility of successfully treating gravitation from the analytical
point of view, by merely transforming the equations, and ignoring the physical
conditions which alone enable us to understand these stupendous forces of Nature.
From a study of these problems running over many years, I venture to think that
the chief difficulty consists not in Analysis or its transformation — since we know
the law of the attractive force — but in discovering some physical agency by
which we can consistently explain the enormous forces actually operative in
gravitation."
The accompanying diagram of the Newtonian theory of a central force of

attraction constantly directed towards the Sun's centre and thus curving the

Fig. 1. The Newtonian Theory, of the Central Force directed to the Sun's centre, incessantly
acting on a planet and curving the path at every point of the orbit.

planet's motion at every point of the orbit will make the central forces discussed
in the above extract from the Observatory a little more intelligible than they other-
wise would be. The stupendous power of these forces and the exactness with which
they are directed to the Sun's centre must be clearly borne in mind by those who wish
to form ideas appropriate to the facts of Nature. Moreover, if the Force of Gravita-
tion is to be done away with, so also must the Force of Magnetism; yet we do not hear
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 61

0/ such a theory of Magnetic Relativity, and it is doubtful if Einstein, De Sitter

and their associates will propose one.
In view of the surprising fact that so learned a mathematician as Dr. J. H.
Jeans (in the Observatory for January, 1917, pp. 57-58) attempts to reply to the
above criticisms, and speaks of Fermat's condition, it seems advisable to make
known part of my investigations into that problem and others relating to the
path of transmission of gravitational force, whether in right lines or in curves which
conform to Fermat's Law of minimum path, in accordance with the Principle
of Least Action. We shall therefore outline without further delay certain geomet-
rical conditions, with the appropriate physical foundations, which underly the
Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Universal Gravitation, as applied to the Fluc-
tuations of the Moon's Mean Motion.

II Electrodynamic Waves Propagated in Free Aether with the Velocity

OF Light the Physical Cause of Those Actions in Nature
Which Involve the Principle of Least Time.

In Bulletin No. 2 we have given a direct and simple proof that Magnetism
is due to the action of plane waves originating in the atoms and propagated through-
out aU space. Two magnets mutually attract when the rotations of the elements

in the waves from one magnet undo the rotations of the elements in the waves from
the other magnet: for this decreases the stress in the medium, and it then con-

tracts just as a stretched mass of India rubber does when released.

It was one of the most remarkable of Faraday's experimental discoveries

that all bodies are magnetic.Thus it is estabUshed that all bodies emit waves
of the type described in Bulletin No. 2. And if the waves from a second body are so
directed as to decrease the stress in the medium between that and the first body, then

the two masses will mutually attract. Upon this general theory rests the discovery

of the cause of Magnetism, of Electrodynamic Action, and of Universal Gravitation.

In the sixth Bulletin we shall examine with more detail, and enter with all
due rigor into the cause of Universal Gravitation. It will be shown that the Medi-
um suffers decrease of stress and is therefore under tension between two heavenly bodies,
while beyond them there is increase of stress and therefore increase of pressure, both
influences operating to hold the bodies together. The increase of tension between the

masses and the increase of pressure beyond them fully explains Universal Gravita-
tion, through mutually interpenetrating waves emitted from the atoms. Thus the
geometrical and physical laws of wave action require rigorous investigation.
The theory of physical forces developed in these Bulletins is so fundamentally
62 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

different from that heretofore current, if indeed any uniform conception of forces
can be said to have been held by investigators, that it is necessary to lay a secure
foundation for the superstructure of the argument to foUow. Thus we have to
develop a line of reasoning of some length; yet in the end we shall be compensated
for our labors by a clearly defined view of the invisible mechanism underlying
the processes of the physical Universe. Heretofore this view has been hazy and
so securely hidden from our imagination as to be utterly bewildering to both
the geometer and the natural philosopher.

(i) The simple case of the reflection of Light from a plane mirror.

We shall first illustrate these operations in the case of reflected light, because
this case is the simplest, and has the advantage that it clearly illuminates some
of the deepest mysteries of Nature.

Fig. 2. Illustration of the reflection of a ray of light from a plane mirror, in the path
of Least Time, along the perimeter of an Isosceles Triangle.

It was an early discovery of the Greek natural philosophers, implied in the

Geometrical Theorems of Euclid, about 300 B.C., but on physical grounds

ascribed to Ptolemy by Laplace, that in the case of a plane mirror the bent
line formed by the incident and reflected rays of light are shorter than any other
 THEOEY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 63

bent line with the same extremities, having its point of bending in the plane of
reflection in the mirror. On account of the geometrical reasoning to follow this
important observed fact is illustrated by the accompanying figure.
Now what is the real cause of this apparent propagation of the light in the
yath of Least Time? We shall try to answer this question briefly, in accordance
with valid geometrical and physical principles.

1. In Euclid's Elements, Book I, Propositions 10-12, (Todhunter's edition,

MacMillan & Co., 1903) we see how the Greek mathematicians reasoned in regard
to the bisection of a line AB by means of a circle described from the centre with
radius CF = CG, and the perpendicular CH at the mid-point of the circular arc
FDG.

2. One of Euclid's celebrated axioms is that a straight line is the

shortest distance between two points. He also shows that a perpendicular is

the shortest distance from any point as C to a right line, as AB; and proves that
any right linedrawn from C to AB but not meeting it in the perpendicular at H
is longer than CH. He does this by the use of the simple rule and compass; and
his conclusion is so obvious that no elaborate demonstration is required.

Fig. 3. Euclid's Geometrical Theorem of the perpendicular as the shortest distance

from a point to given line, and the isosceles triangle which may be erected at
equal distances from the base of the perpendicular.

3. Now in the above figure of the ray of light reflected from the mirror,
AMB corresponds to Euclid's isosceles triangle FCG. Therefore AMB is an
isosceles triangle, and MP is the perpendicular from the reflecting point M in the
plane of the mirror. Consequently by geometrical construction the angles of
incidence and of reflection necessarily are equal.
64 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

4. In regard to the physical cause of this equaUty of angles, it is obvious

that it can only rest on the elastic rebound of the waves, at the surface of the mirror,
due to the physical properties of the aether when the motion is retarded. This medium
is elastic, and disturbances in it are therefore reflected according to the recognized

law of action and reaction in ponderable bodies of elastic constitution.

5. A few familiar illustrations will suffice: (a) When a boy bounces a

rubber ball on the smooth pavement, the descending and ascending angle of the
ball's motion are equal, (b) When a glass, stone, or metal marble is thrown
against a smooth, highly rigid slab, the angle of the rebound is noticed to be equal
to that of the descent, and the same law holds for the reaction of all elastic solids

in collision, (c) So also for arrested fluid movements, as when waves in water
are reflected from a smooth wall. Here we may easily observe that the angle

of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. This law of Nature is indeed uni-
versal, and rests on the physical property of the more or less perfect elasticity of form
and volume.

6. Now since the propagation of light involves the transmission of waves

in the aether, this medium evidently will react if it is elastic, and the forward motion
is obstructed, as at the surface of the mirror.

7. It is shown geometrically, in the reasoning above cited from Euclid,

that the shortest distance from M to AB is the perpendicular MP; and as the

points A and B are equidistant from the base of the perpendicular P they too
are equally distant from M, so that AM — MB.

8. Of all the triangles erected on AB as a base, and with vertices in the

parallel line MD, in the plane of the mirror, the isosceles triangle has the shortest

perimeter.* Consequently any triangle not isosceles, as AEB wiU have the sum
of the sides AE + EB longer than AM + MB. Hence AMB is the path of the
shortest time.

9. This result was known to the Greek mathematicians in the time of Euclid,
300 B.C., but the cause of it has not been fully agreed upon even in our own time.

Hence we have entered with some detail into the circumstances of the motion
of light.

*The celebrated problem of perimeters was first treated by the Greek Geometer Zeno-
DORUS, in the second century B.C. In general the perimeter is less the nearer the approach
of the figure to that of a regular polygon, whether made up of 3 or n sides, so that an Isosceles
triangle has the same property.
 THEOBY OP THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 65

10. With these geometrical principles before us, we now ask what, then,
is the physical cause of so wonderful a result? It was long thought by philos-
ophers to be an indication of a tendency to simpUcity and economy in Nature.
But from the above reasoning we conclude that it rests on two distinct grounds,
as follows:

(a) The very perfect elasticity of the aetherial medium. This gives a physical
basis for the reflection of wave disturbances which cannot proceed in a right line, and
necessarily makes the angle r = i.

(b) As the reflection, on the same physical grounds, requires the reflected waves
to follow the other equal side of an isosceles triangle, the geometrical path AMB nec-
essarily is the shortest possible. And since light is confined to this isosceles triangle,
by the physical properties of the elastic aether, it must on purely geometrical grounds
be propagated in the Least Time.

{ii) The case of Light bent out of its rectilinear path by Refraction.

The above discussion is sufficient for the simple case of aether waves under-
going reflection from a plane mirror; but in the case of refraction, more complex
phenomena arise, and it is necessary to consider the path of the light as it goes
through media which bend the rays from a rectilinear course.
This problem was first critically examined by the French mathematician
Fermat (1601 — 1665) whose researches on maxima and minima are considered
by many modern geometers to be the earliest germs of the Differential Calculus.

When Fermat tried to trace out this supposed economy of Nature, in the more
complex problem of refraction, he encountered considerable difficulty, because
in his time the relative velocities in the refracting media were not yet established
by observation.
About 1620, Snellius had discovered the law of refraction, which DesCartes,
1637, put in the form now used:

sin i = n sin r.

It was soon found that if the two lengths or indices be measured along the in-
cident ray prolonged and the refracted ray, they have a common projection in
the plane of refraction.
In order to reconcile these phenomena with the acknowledged propagation
in least time, supposed to follow from natural laws since the time of the Greek
66 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

philosophers, Fermat was led to conclude from considerations of simplicity that

the relative velocities are inversely as the refractive indices, and therefore that
the velocity o£ light is diminished on entering the denser medium, in which the
path was found by observation to approach the perpendicular.*
Fermat believed that the total time of propagation would be found by taking
the sum of the products of the length of path of the incident light by its velocity,
in the first medium, kvi, and of the length of path of the refracted light by its
velocity in the second medium, I2V2.

Indeed, Fermat's mathematical treatment showed this compound sum,

liVi + I2V2 to be less, for a path in a plane refraction, than that which would result

if the light went by any other than its actual path. Hence resulted Fermat's
condition of minimum path, which has since become so celebrated in physical

science. Thus he was enabled to reconcile his mathematical discovery that in

the actual path the sum r = liVi + I2V2 is a minimum, with his cosmological no-

tion of propagation in Least Time, recognized in simple reflection since the age
of the Greek geometers.
For a time these results of Fermat's researches were attacked by DesCartes
and his followers, but after the discovery of the Calculus they were zealously and
effectively defended by Leibnitz. Huyghens was among the first to recognize
Roemer's discovery of the velocity of light (1675), and thus he too was led to
adopt Fermat's conclusions of a velocity inversely as the index of the medium,
and of minimum time of propagation.
But as Newton's widely current emission theory was not reconcilable with
Fermat's results, the theorem of shortest time was abandoned by many. It

was Maupertuis proposed in its stead the celebrated Principle

at this stage that

of Least Action. This new principle was afterwards much elaborated by the
researches of Euler and Lagrange.

(Hi) Maupertuis' Principle of Least Action.

Maupertuis' principle of Least Action as formulated by Lagrange, is stated

thus:

(1) A = / / ^ niiVidSi

*Cf. Tait, Article, Light, Encyc. Brit, 9th edition, Vol. XIV, p. 598.
 THEOEY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 67

This means that in any independent system, the integral of the actions
between t = 0, t = t, is found by summing up the products of mass by velocity,
by element of curvilinear space traversed.
Maupertuis tried to reconcile the results of Fermat and Newton, by show-
ing that the course chosen by light corresponds to the least possible action, though
not always to the The introduction of the product of masses
least possible time.

by velocity, in the above formula, was required to compose the difficulties of

Newton's corpuscular theory of light, and first occurs in Lagrange's researches
on Dynamics.
Among the several great mathematicians of the preceding age Euler was
pre-eminently Newton's intellectual successor. And as the Swiss geometer
became attached to Maupertuis during his residence at St. Petersburg and Ber-
lin, and was agreeably impressed with the new principle of Least Action, he em-

ployed his own great mathematical powers to show that the law of Least Action
applies to motion in all curves described by points under the influence of central
forces, such as planets and comets revolving about the Sun, and of heavy bodies
falling to the Earth in the curve of least time (Brachistochrone), which had also

long engaged the attention of Newton, Leibnitz, and the Bernoulis.

In Euler's method of proof he takes the curve actually described and com-
pares it with another having the same extremities, but differing from it indefinitely

little in shape and position, yet such as may be imagined described by a neighbor-
ing point with the same law of velocity. Then, applying the term action to the
integral of the product of the velocity and element of the curve, he finds that the
difference of the two neighboring values of this action will be indefinitely less
than the greatest linear distance (itseff indefinitely small) between the two adjacent
curves. Sir Wm. R. Hamilton, whose discussion we have here followed, calls

this unchanging result Stationary Action.

Lagrange extended this theorem of Euler to the motion of a system of
bodies which act in any manner on each other, the action being formed of the

sum of the masses by the velocity-space integrals employed by Euler, so as to

give the Lagrange-Hamilton form:

A =/ ^m,V,f:dt (2)
dt

In tridimensional space the velocity along the arc of any curve of double
curvature becomes
68 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

And therefore

<^'
^:/l(:-^'m-m-m)-'M'-'^ " <=o

This formula therefore represents the integral for the preservation of the
Kinetic Energy or Vis-Viva.

Ill The Principles of Least Action and of Varying Action Deducible

PROM the Conservation of the Kinetic Energy under Physical
Forces Due to Waves

We have just seen that in any conservative system, such as an isolated star
cluster, in steady motion but without collisions and in space free of a resisting
medium, the changes of the squared velocities, in a given time t — to, mutually bal-
ance up, and within the whole system entirely disappear; so that

(5) 2m.y..^=/(^m.F.|')d«

In other words: Given the system oi i + 1 bodies moving with velocities

Vi at the epoch to, they will at the epoch t also be moving with other velocities v,

of such a nature that although individual increases and decreases occur, yet in

the whole system the squares multiplied by the masses mutually compensate,
so that the action becomes

(6)
^=/(2-'-^'S)'^^
^1=0

And therefore the variation of the Action vanishes:

(7) oA = o/ (S^ vu Yi ^) dt = 8(y^ m, vA =

(=0
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 69

Now whilst the variation of the Action vanishes in a conservative system, it

does not do so in a non-conservative one. Yet when work is done the change in
the Kinetic Energy of the system in any time, to to t, depends only on the relative
distances of the masses at the beginning and end of that time. The changes in the
mutual distances is purely a problem of mutual action, under the attractive forces
exerted by the bodies, along right lines joining their centres, and hence the absurdity

of the claim made by Einstein and his followers that Gravity is not a "force," but a
"property of space."
For it is obvious that the paths of the motions follow from the initial co-ordinates

Xi, yi, Zi, and the velocities -jj ' -^ > -ttS and the accelerations produced by the

mutual action of the bodies of the system in the interval to to t. The conservation

of areas holds even with internal collisions, but the vis-viva only for a conservative
system.
In the force function introduced by Lagrange the mutual potential of the
I + 1 bodies taken in pairs mt mj is formulated thus:

^, momi mowiz m,,mi moin„ „

U = + = =
•
, , , , \ i
-r 1- -r h -r h . . . \ t 0, J 1 .

Ao,2 Ao,3 A-

Ai,2 Ai,3 Ai,„

A2 , 3 "211.

+ . / I = n - 1, ] = n^

1 = 1 j-n

= 5;
(=0
S 'S
J=l \,J
^^>

And since

A?,, = (e.
- i)' + im - vjY + (r<
- 1,)' (10)

we have

9Ao,i ^ go - gi e)Ao,2 ^ go- ^2 ^^o„^ ^ go - g..

(11)
ago ~ Ao,i
'
ago Ao,2 '
ago Ao,„

And the corresponding differential equations for the actions of the other
bodies upon mo become:
70 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

'^0 ~17T
dP
= ^0^1 1i
Ao,i
—T + '^o'^ —A
Ao,2'
—T + • • + mom,, Ao,

^^'?0 ™ ™ '?! ~ '?!' '?2 — I70

(12) I
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 71

^ = /(y^^niVA dt = / Cdt ,
C = a constant, (15)

and therefore for any given interval of time t - U there is no change in the Action.
From the point of view of the conservation of energy, we may write T for the
kinetic energy, V for the potential energy; and then for the total energy of the
sj^stem we have

And as the total energy is constant for any system subjected only to the
mutual actions of its parts, it is obvious that we shall have BT = —ZV; therefore

Accordingly this equation defines any variation in the potential energy which may
occur as due to variations in the co-ordinates.
The integral therefore

8A = hi ^ {m,Y,^dt = (18)

expresses Hamilton's Stationary Condition.

Hamilton calls the changes of the Action due to variation of path, with the same
terminal co-ordinates, Varying Action.
Let W denote the work function, and T the kinetic and V the potential energy;
then we have
L = T +W = T - V .
(19)

But W and V are functions of the co-ordinates, not of the velocities; and
therefore if AB be the actual trajectory, CD the neighboring path, with the same
terminal points and times of description, we obviously have identical action in the

two paths
Cbdi - fldt = (20)

which shows that the Action is Stationary.

72 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

This result is an extension of the researches of Euler and Lagrange, and known
as Hamilton's Principle. It implies that the motion in the same time is one of
Least Action, along paths appropriate to the conservation of the kinetic energy, and
thus combines Fermat's Principle of Least Time with Maupertuis' Principle of
Least Action.
All these results really depend on the conservation of the kinetic energy, and
thus are referable to wave action propagated in least time. In any conservative

system, the conservation of the Kinetic Energy is obvious. This is all that Least
Action implies; and it is traceable to physical forces directed to the masses mu-
tually, and due to the interaction of infinite systems of waves in the aethereal

medium, everywhere under tension and therefore propagated in the least time,

and thus more rapidly in free space than through ponderable bodies, involving
resistance to the progress of the disturbances.
Accordingly, if such an attractive force as Universal Gravitation be due to
electrodynamic wave action, as shown by the writer's researches of 1914-17, it

will follow that the disturbances due to such waves, pursuing paths of least action,

in least time, — but with the adjacent path offering unequal resistance — will

necessarily suffer refraction and dispersion, perhaps absorption, while traversing

the solid matter of the heavenly bodies.

. The Sun's gravitational attraction on the Moon, therefore, will be decreased

in and near the shadow of the Earth, giving that very "expenditure or absorption
of energy somewhere in the solar system" postulated by Newcomb for explaining
the Moon's Fluctuations, in his posthumous memoir of 1912.
Accordingly whilst there is conservation of energy in the Universe, this con-
servation is not perfect in the temporary operations of a single system involving the
mutual interaction of parts under forces propagated through solid masses, in which
the electrodynamic waves may be refracted and dispersed, when bent from a rectilinear

path in transmission. It was in the hope of unfolding this view of the mutual
actions of the heavenly bodies, when these actions are somewhat obstructed, by
the interposition of some of these masses in the rectilinear paths of the mutual
electrodynamic wave action, that we have dwelt at length on the laws of
Dynamics.
We cannot assume the ordinary formulae for the dynamics of particles, with-
out considering the interposition of ponderable masses of finite dimensions in the
line of mutual action wave disturbances traveling with the velocity of Light,
for

and therefore suffering both refraction and dispersion, perhaps absorption, of

part of the wave energy. But as the dimensions of the heavenly bodies are very
small compared to the immense distances which separate them, there is reason
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 73

to anticipate that the modification of the gravitational forces in propagation

through the masses should be very small.
It is not wonderful therefore that this refraction, dispersion and perhaps
absorption of gravitational energy long escaped attention; and is only now be-
ginning to be placed on a sound mathematical and physical basis, and verified
by observations drawn from the motion of the Moon.

IV Application of Hamilton's Principle to the Wave-Theory of Light,

AND Thence to- Electrodynamic Waves in Electrodynamics and
Universal Gravitation

In the Wave Theory of Light the time of passage from one point to another,
as was found by Fermat, rests on the principle of least time. Accordingly this
time of transmission should thus fulfiU Hamilton's Stationary Condition. We
restrict our present considerations to the case of single refraction in a non-homo-
geneous medium; for if it applies to this case perfectly, it will obviously apply
to the more complicated phenomena of light which occur in Nature, and also to
the Electrodynamic Waves which give rise to the attractions observed in Elec-
trodynamic Action and Universal Gravitation.
In the problems of refractions, we have to consider the curved path of the
light; and the measure of curvature is defined by the equations:

s = acj) ,
\

curvature = ^- = - '
I
as a )

where cj) is the angle between the osculating tangent planes, and ds is the element
of the curve, and a the radius of curvature, for the osculating circle passing through
three consecutive points.
For any path in space, the curvature is

P
1 ^
\l
I
f<lx\
\dsV:y m
,dsy +
^ @T
\ds'
(2^)

And the direction cosines of the radius of curvature

d^x d^y dh
^^^^
"di"^' "di^' 'd?
74 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

In a single refracting medium the velocity of light at any point (x, y, z) is

the same whatever be the direction of the ray; and thus the velocity of the dis-
turbance depends only on the co-ordinates of the point, and some characteristic
of the waves, such as their length.
If T be the time of passage, ds the element of the path, and v the velocity of
light, we have as the integral which must fulfill Hamilton's stationary condition:

rdi
ds
(24)
J V

Accordingly, by the Calculus of Variations,

(25) 8t - f^
J V
_ C ds8v
|2~
J
— v'

If X be the wave length, it is obvious that the velocity would be defined by

the functional relation

(26) v=f{\, X, y, z)

the form of the function/ depending on the arrangement of the parts of the medium.
Making use of this value of v in (25), we obtain

dxdbx + dydby + dzd&z rd,

ds fdv
5X + -r Sx
dv dv
-^ Sw
dv
+ -r ,

(27) 8t
-f vds J o
V VdX
|2
I ,,
dx
-|-
dy '^
dz
53

fdx dy dz r -„1 ri dv J — rl dv J — rl dv J
8z\ — — ds
1 dt)
= ^ ^ . ,, ,
— ^
-„ —ds
^ ^

^''fy£'^' - 'yfkfy^' - ^'f^

,

- 5x
,

(28) 5X I -;r ds \8y -„ -r ds

Ads'^+i'y+ds'' v^ d\ v^dz
i

The last three integrals of (27), under Hamilton's stationary condition, vanish,
because the fixed terminal points make hx, hy, ^z each equal to zero. The rest
of the expression depends on the terminal points of the path, and on the wave
length only.*
These conditions therefore lead to four equations

8t 1 dx .

(29)
 THEOEY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 75

And therefore if we square and add the first three equations of (29) we shall obtain

{%) Hamilton's Characteristic Function defined.

In 1823, when only eighteen years of age, Hamilton obtained insight into
his method, and gradually introduced the consideration of a characteristic function
A defined by the following differential equation for a single particle of unit mass.

= dx dy dz dxo
5A -r,
dt
Sx +
,

'
-^ 8y
dt '^
+
,

~rr
dt
,
dz
dt
too +^° 52/0 + ^° S^o) +«5ff , (32)

where H is the constant of the total energy H == T + V.

If the moving particle be entirely free, the seven variables in the right mem-
ber of (32) are independent of one another; and thus the characteristic function

A fulfills the following remarkable differential equations:

dA
dx
76 THEORY OF THE TRANSWSSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

<->
(ST +(|)'+(I^T --<«--'
it follows that the partial differential coefficients with respect to the co-ordinates
represent the components of the velocity in a motion possible under the forces
whose potential is V. And as V is the potential energy of the system, this result
is very remarkable; for it assimilates the propagation of wave disturbances, such
as light, and electrodynamic action, to the action of universal gravitation, which
also fulfills the same condition.

By partial differentiation of (34) with respect to the co-ordinates we have

dA
dx dx^
d^ dA ^
dy dxdy
dA d^
dz dxdz
_ _dV_d^^drdx
dx dt^ dt \dt

^^^^ \ dy dxdy
"*"
dy dy^
"^
dz dydz
~ dy ~ dt^ ~ dt [dt

dA
dz
d^ dA
dxdz'^ dz dydz^ dz
d^ _lM^-
dz^ ~
_^_7-^
~ ~dz dt^
=
~
'L f^\
dt\dtj'

Also, differentiating in respect to t, we have

dxd\Adyd^d£ d^ _ d fdA
dt dx^ dt dxdy dt dxdz dt\dx

^'^'^^
]

\
dy
dt
d^
dxdy
4.
"^
^^
dy^
dt
,

'^
^
dt
^
dydz
= ^{^
dt
'

dy

dz d^ dy d^
dydz
j_
"^
^^ = ^ /^M
~ dt \dz
dt dxdz dt dt dz^

On comparing equations (36) and (37), we find that

dx
(38)
 THEORY OP THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 77

By complete differentiation of (39) with respect to t through the three co-

ordinates X, y, z we have at once:

d'^A dx d^ dy d^ dz
dxda dt dyda dt dzda. dt ~ '

dU dx
"•"
^dy "^
d^A dz ^
dxdfi dt dydfi dt dzdfi dt ~ '
/ (40)

d^A dx . dU dy ,
d^A dz
dxdH dt ^ dydHlt ~^
dzdHdi ~ "

Similar differentiation in respect to a, y8, H, respectively, gives;

B^A dA ^dA e^ M -
dadx dx "^ dady dy ~
"*"
dadz dz '

d^A dA d^A dA d^A dA ^

d^dx dx + ^^5^
,

'
dfidy
X7
dy +
,

' ^sr„ dz
d^dz ^ = ,
y
) (41)

d^A dA d^A dA dU dA _
dHdx dx '
dHdy dy '
dHdz dz

On comparing these two sets of equations, we find

dx
78 THEOBY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

And we see that if we can obtain a complete integral of this equation, containing
therefore two arbitrary constants a, /8, in the form

(43) T = F{x,y,z,\,a,0) ;

then the derived equations

dr dF
='^'.
, da a„(^-2/.^-^.«,^)
^^^^
6r 6F

will represent two series of surfaces, whose intersections give the path of the light
in the medium.
As a' and /8' are also arbitrary constants, the four constants a, /8, a', fi' are
necessary and sufficient for the purpose ofmaking the two intersecting surfaces
each pass through any two given points poixo, ya, Zo) and p(x, y, z).
These Hamiltonian considerations on single refraction in non-homogeneous
media show, as was originally found by Fermat, that the actual path is that of
least time, as well as of least action.

Now the physical cause of such action is known to be waves in the highly
elastic aether, and propagated with unequal velocities, in different media, accord-
ing to density, effective elasticity, and wave length. Increase of density, due
to the presence of ponderable matter, hinders the progress of the wave of given

length, while increase of elasticity under thinning of the matter accelerates it.

And in general decreasing the wave length increases the retardation in velocity.
Equiactional surfaces, orthogonal to the path of light, are so distributed that
the distances between them, for geometrical reasons, are always inversely as the
velocity in the corresponding path.
Now it is clearly shown in Bulletins 1, 2, 3, that Electrodynamic Action
is conveyed by waves, traveling in free aether with the velocity of light, and there-
fore these waves will follow the same general laws as the waves of light. Such
a physical cause necessarily takes the path of least time and of least action, which
is also that of least resistance to the disturbances of the medium. And as the
motions of the planets conform to these principles, the question may properly
be asked whether any other cause than Electrodynamic Wave Action could be
imagined to produce the attractions of the heavenly bodies.
According to the Newtonian Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy, it is obvious
that all other causes would be excluded; but before reaching such an actual con-
 THEOBY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 79

elusion, we shall apply Hamilton's method to the motions of a planet about the
Sun. If the orbit be found to be a path of least action, in the least time, the
presumption that Gravitation is a phenomenon of wave action will be confirmed
by observed phenomena, and the result may safely be used as the basis of sound
Natural Philosophy.
The following outline is based on Tait's discussion, but the processes in
the main are due to Hamilton, yet also partly due to Jacobi (cf. JacobI, Vor-
lesungen Ueber Dynamik; and Tisserand's Mecanique Celeste, Tome I, Intro-
duction and Chapter VII). Jacobi was a friend of Hamilton, greatly interested
in his mathematical methods, and in a pubhc address at Manchester, England,
at the end of June, 1842, referred to Hamilton as "le Lagrange de votre pays."
(Cf. Graves' Life of Hamilton, Vol. II, p. 388).

V Integration of the Differential Equations for the Motion of a

Planet along an Elliptic Orbit as a Path of Least Action Illustrated
BY Hamilton's Method for Waves Traveling in Least Time: The Case
of Waves Traversing a Sphere Made Up of Concentric Spherical
Shells of Uniform Density Illuminates the Decrease of Gravitation
Near the Shadow of the Earth.

(i) The Elliptic Motion of a Planet illustrates Hamilton's principle of Vary-

ing Action, quite as well as the Wave Theory of Light, — thus mathematically justi-
fying the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Universal Gravitation.

In Bulletin No. 2, Section III, it is shown that in wave motion the ampli-
tude a = - » ^^^ ^^® energy of wave action varies as the square of the amplitude,
r
7 2

E = -^ ;
which corresponds to the law of attraction found by Gauss to hold for
magnets (Intensitas Vis Magneticce, 1833, §21) and by Newton for the motion
of the planets under Universal Gravitation. These results indicate the adequacy
of the Wave-Theory for explaining the attractive forces of Nature, both Terres-
trial and Celestial; and the presumption therefore is that all the attractions and

motions in Nature conform to the resulting physical laws. Yet there will be
some advantage in verifying the inference that this may occur by a rigorous exami-
nation of the question from a purely geometrical point of view.

If V = — (45) be the gravitational potential due to the Sun's attraction,

i}xQii — = — ^ (46) will represent the central force.

80 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

But in summing up the total energy of a system the potential energy is always
m with negative
taken sign, V = . Using
Usir this value therefore the Hamiltonian
partial differential equation (34) becomes*

If the plane of xy be taken as the plane of the planet's motion, the term in
z disappears, and (47) reduces to

And in the more convenient polar co-ordinates this takes the well known
form

This equation is satisfied by the values

dA
„ . = a , a constant ,
on
(50)

fJ-K^-^^-t
Therefore, since the first of these equations gives

(51) A =f~de ==fade = oB

and the second leads to

( (v) * = ^4^ («+^)-^

or Md,..*J2(H+J^-i;,
\ dr ^ \ r J r^

we have for the positive value

(53,
^=/^*=/'VK«+^-p
*Cf. p. G. Tait, Article Mechanics, Ency. Brit., 9th Edition.
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 81

Therefore the general integral of (48) is

A^ae +ydr ^2(H+^-f, (54)

And the final solution, found by differentiating this expression in respect to a

and H becomes
dA
82 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

Again, if we differentiate (55) with respect to r we get

do =
(61)

or, when we have regard to (56), and (57),

^ +^= / = - /.^rf. = -^. /,-V.

(62)

This is the integral for the areas, which, by Kepler's Law, is constant; and
therefore properly taken as the measure of the time from a fixed epoch e, the
time of perihelion passage.

(n) In the elliptic motion of a 'planet, the Time is measured by the area de-

scribed around the lower focus, while the Action is measured by the area described

about the upper focus.

For we have

!dt = -rTT=, • '>'^dd = K V p ,

h
dA = vds — - ds ,

where p is the perpendicular distance from the focus upon the tangent to the
ellipse, and h is constant.

Now we have also (of. Williamson and Tarlton's Dynamics, 1885, §166,
p. 174) for the radius vector r' and perpendicular p' from the upper focus

V
— p' r'
(64)
V ^
P
'
=
p'
' ^
p
= -
r

Therefore we have

dt = Kvp ,

(6^^
) dA = \,ds- p'
 THEORY OF THE TEANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 83

And as ^'
= p » we see that while dt depends on the area described about
the lower focus, the element of the action dA on the other hand, depends on the
area described about the upper focus.* This is a very curious result in the plan-
etary theory, and shows that the Time and the Action are in a reciprocal rela-
tion as to the origins of their respective areas used as the basis of the measure-
ments.

Fig. 4. Illustration of the Areas afc and a'fb' described about the occupied focus
/, which measure the times t' and t, according to Kepler's second Law; and of the Actions
a'fb' and afc described about the empty focus/' in the intervals t and t'. The Actions are
very unequal, as might be expected from the very unequal intensities of the central forces
at perihelion and aphelion respectively, the product vds magnifying the difference in the
ratio of the square of the forces.

The integrals between the instants to and t are respectively:

r = r r'dO = C{t - to) ,

(66)
A = r (vds) dt .

*Cf. Tait, Article Mechanics, Ency. Brit., 9th edition.

84 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

Here C is the constant of areas, according to Kepler's second law; and A

may be calculated from the areas described about the empty focus as origin.

(m) Hamilton's method of Varying Action applied to Light of uniform wave

length propagated through a medium arranged in concentric spherical shells of uni-
form density.

We may assume that at a distance r from the centre of the sphere, the light

will be traveling in the spherical shell of mass

(67) d7n = Awar^dr

It thus appears that the density varies inversely as r^, for we have

cbu, 1
(68) rr =
- A ^

But the velocity decreases in denser media, so that it varies in the inverse ratio

of the density, or directly as r^. We may therefore take

+
(69) V = —^
b' r'

where h and c are absolute constants, such that at the centre of the sphere, where

r = ,

b'
(70) Vo= -

On account of symmetry, the path of any ray necessarily will be in a plane

through the centre. CalUng this plane that of xy we have

^^'^>
\dx) ^ [dyj v' ib' + rY

In the more convenient polar co-ordinates this expression becomes

(72) [Tr)+7^
drj r\d9j '

(b'^ + ry
 THEORY OP THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 85

Of this equation see seek the general sokition. If now we assume, as before,

dr
36
= ^' (^^)

then (72) gives

a
~ \( (74)
dr i{b^ + rY r'

And as (73) yields the first solution t = a6, the equation (74) leads to

. =y d.^ f
(-52 _,_
^y ^2
(75)

Hence the complete solution from (74) becomes the general solution:

The equation of the path of the light therefore is

a
, dr „ f dr
da I I e 2 (7y)
'•{i(6" + ry r"

= 6 — cos^
r^t,-v »«
V
This gives at once

6^ -r'
= - 46^ • COS (9 - a') (79)
y ^]

(iv) The Paths of the Rays in Diametral Planes through the Concentric Spherical

Shells are Circles.

Accordingly, we conclude that the above equation represents a series of

circles, with the following common property. Let ¥ be the square of the least
half chord, through any point as cut by any one of the concentric spherical shells.

Then it is shown in Geometry (cf. Chauvenet's Geometry, Book III, Prop. XVII,
86 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

p. 114) that this is equal to the product of the two segments AO-OA' in any other
direction whatever,
(80) AO •
OA' = b'

The points A and A' are conjugate foci, in respect to 0, the common centre
of the concentric spherical shells; for light going from either focus, will return to
the other through the paths of the circle specified. In the theory of Light this
remarkable result is of great interest in connection with the phenomena of the

Mirage. In Electrodynamics it opens up a physical theory of the decrease of the

Sun's gravitation in the shadows of the planets, and thus will throw new light

on the Unexplained Fluctuations of the Moon's Mean Motion first suspected by New-
comb in 1869, and definitely established by his last Researches in 1909.

Fig. 5. Maxwell's Theory of the Circular Refraction of rays of light in the eye of
a fish, which also applies to the Refraction of Electrodynamic Waves in traversing the Earth
made up of concentric spherical shells with density increasing towards the centre.

From the above reasoning we see that every ray through a sphere made
up of concentric spherical shells of uniform density, but with the density increas-

ing towards the centre, will be confined to a diametral plane, and describe a cir-

cle; and a pair of conjugate foci will always lie on a line through the centre of
the shells. Maxwell discovered this remarkable result from the arrangement
of the eye of a fish (Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal, Vol. XI), but
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 87

the present discussion follows the analysis given by Tait, in the Article, Light,
Encyc. Brit., 9th edition.
In the figure let be the common centre of the spherical shells of equal re-
fractive index; then obviously, every ray from A describes a circle which passes
through A', and AOA' is a straight fine through the centre. A and A', B and
B' are conjugate foci; and by Geometry the common property is

AO OA' = b' ,

^^^^
BO OB' = b' , etc. )

If we suppose an eye situated in the layer at Ei, in the small circle of density
cTi, about the centre, it will receive the light from A along the tangent to the larger
circle through AEiA', and similarly for any other point B, seen along the tangent
to the circle BE^B'.
These images wiU be erect, for they have not yet passed through the con-
jugate foci, A', B' ; but if the eye now be turned in the opposite direction, towards
A', B', the light will have traversed the longer paths AE2A', BEzB', and enter
the eye after turning its course through 180° and passing through the conjugate
foci A' B' so that
, , theimage will he inverted and moreover represent the hack of
the object. It is obvious from the figure why this results namely, the circuit- —
ous course to the opposite focus produces inversion, and the light so proceeding
is from the hack of the objects at AB.

(v) Description of the paths of Gravitational Waves propagated through a

Heterogeneous Sphere made up of concentric spherical shells of uniform density.

If the gravitation of the Sun pass through the Earth, in the form of Elec-
trodynamic Waves, it will obviously suffer some decrease in and near the shadow
of the Earth; and thus operate to disturb the Moon during echpses, as pointed
out by Dr. K. F. Bottlinger in his crowned Prize Inaugural Dissertation,
Munich, 1912 (c. Troemer's Universitats Buchhandlung, Freiburg, 1912).
The above outline of the Hamiltonian theory of refraction in a sphere made
up of concentric spherical shells of uniform density, but increasing in density
towards the centre will enable us to see that in passing through the globe the Elec-
trodynamic Waves must necessarily be somewhat diverted from a rectilinear
course, and therefore the effect would be to decrease the Sun's gravity on the
Moon when near the Earth's shadow.
This new physical theory thus confirms Bottlinger's researches, indicating
that the Sun's gravitation is less near the anti-solar point; and the subject there-
fore becomes one of such high interest in connection with the Lunar Theory that
it deserves the most careful investigation.
 88 THEORY OP THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

As the waves are refracted through the Earth, they

are partially turned
aside in circles of various radii. Within a curved conical area having its vertex
at the Earth's centre and extending beyond the Moon's orbit, the gravity of
the Sun is decreased. This physical refraction of part of the
Gravitational Waves

Illustration of the Refraction of the

Electrodynamic Waves from the Sun as
they !traverse the globe of the Earth, and are
,h.
partially refracted to either side,
mg the Moon, so that the Sun's effective gravity is decreased before reach

and the result .s periodic Fluctuations in the

near the shadow of the Ear t
Moon's motion depending on the ^aland
cycles connected with the movements otW
of the Perigee and Nodes of the
Lunar Orbit

is iUustrated roughly by the accompanying figure, which for the sake

of simplicity
IS restricted to uniform wave length, and thus omits the effects
of dispersion.
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 89

VI Analysis of the Secular Effects of the Circular Refraction, Dis-

persion AND perhaps Absorption of Gravitational Waves Propagated
Through the Concentric Homogeneous Spherical Shells Composing
THE Earth.

(i) Cause of the circular refraction, dispersion and perhaps absorption of rays.

From the foregoing mathematical theory and the accompanying figure of

the law of density in the Earth {A.N. 3992) <t = a' ?HLM (32) we see that in pass-

ing through the Earth the course of the gravitational waves will be rectilinear,

13

12
90 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

This outline of the paths presupposes that the waves are of uniform length,
(so that dispersion may be neglected for the time being) and the density of the
Earth is arranged in concentric spherical shells, each one homogeneous, but the
series having an increase of density towards the centre. In this case there cer-
tainly will be circular refraction of the wave paths; also dispersion for different
wave lengths; and there may be absorption of some of the energy of wave motion.
If a be the density in any layer of thickness e the absorption of a ray Ao by
the usual theory becomes

where k is the constant of absorption for the density a = 1, ds is the element

of the path, and a may also be a function of s.

Our knowledge of the Earth shows that (j changes steadily, so that the

exponential integral k C^ds must be quite small. Accordingly we may take

the first term as a sufficient approximation to the exponential series. This leads to

(84) A = Aoe~ o""^ = Ao(l-/c) Tads = A^-A<,k j^ads

Hence, we may consider that an opposing force arises of strength

(85) Aqk Cads

and for the case of constant density do, we get

(86) ^oK ) ads = ^oKo^or

It therefore appears that for a body such as our Moon, in or near the shadow
of the Earth, there may be an absorption of gravitational energy, even in rectilinear

transmission; and also circular refraction and dispersion of the rays as explained

above. Now the circular refraction and dispersion of rays will extend somewhat
beyond the Earth's shadow, and as the rays absorbed would come not from a
mathematical point, but from any part of the Sun's disc, it follows that the ab-
sorption, refraction and dispersion would also be diffused over the penumbra as
well as the umbra. Yet the conical region in which gravity would be diminished
 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OP PHYSICAL FORCES 91

by this thinning out of the Sun's electrodynamic waves would have its base on a
circle about the anti-solar point.
The result of this double and perhaps treble decrease in the intensity of the
Sun's gravitation, when the Moon is near the shadow of the Earth, would be to
cause it to move while passing through this region as if acted upon by a slight
repulsive force, directed from the centre of the Earth. For at this time the Earth
is essentially in line with the Sun, which always exercises the preponderant influ-

ence on the Moon's motion.

We here consider only the disturbing influence on the Moon's radius vector,
as this alone affects the semi-axis major a and the mean motion n. For this dis-

turbance in the radius vector alone introduces into the Moon's mean motion a
term in the mean longitude recurring with each eclipse, and therefore having an
accumulative effect which in time might become very sensible to observation.

(ii) Formulce for expressing the secular Effect of the Refraction, Dispersion
and perhaps Absorption of Gravitational Wave Energy.

If R be the component of the disturbing force, in the direction of the radius

vector, and the other components vanish, and L be the mean longitude, we have
for the perturbation of this element the well known formula (cf. Tisserand's
Mecanique Celeste, Tome I, p. 433)

—
-
dL
Tt^""^
i
<
\
„
2r
aeVl
+ i^^^^, cos.^
,
e
e^ }
-R + Jran
a7i
^dt (87)

where v = —
^—j the ratio of the Moon's mass to that of the Sun and Earth.

In this expression the disturbing force is an impulse in the direction of the

radius vector. To judge of the effect of such a disturbance, we recall that any
co-ordinate x of the place of the body —
computed from assumed elements of
an elliptic orbit —
is defined by the functional relation

X = F{t,, 9,, i, <p, Mo,n) , (88)

and the variation given by the equation:

92 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

But as the disturbing impulse R is sensible chiefly near the anti-solar point,
where the eclipses of the Moon occur, the variations of most of the elements are
periodic, and in the long run vanish. On account of the symmetry of the impulses
during a long interval, in which whole eclipse cycles are completed, we may there-
fore neglect the variations in tt, ^, i, (p, Mo; and thus there remains only the
last terms in (87) and (89), which involve the mean motion or mean longitude.
This integration of the term in the mean motion is to be extended over the
period of the eclipses or appulses near the anti-solar point; for after the passage
through or near the shadow of the Earth the variation in the mean motion ceases,

like the impulses acting on the Moon.

The mean motion is defined by the equations

_ ^ Vj/ dn _ dnda
'^~W^ '
li~ ~2a~dt
(90)
3
6 rnda „
,, ,
rdn „

Therefore from equation (87) we have at once

(91) ^ _ „,„ = / '^^ = An

in which e denotes the interval of the eclipse or appulse at near approach to the
Earth's shadow in space.
And the change in the mean longitude for many eclipses or appulses follows

from the second integration

(92) AL = L - Lu = / /^ dtdt ,

where the limits of the integral are the beginning of the appulse and the origin

of the time, Se being the duration of all the appulses.

In order to evaluate this double integral for the change in mean longitude,
we notice, as pointed out by Bottlingee, that it is made up of two parts: the
double integral during the duration of the eclipses or near approaches to the
shadow of the earth, and the expression for the direct changes in the integral

(93) r ^ndt = An{t- t') ,

where t is the end of the appulse.

 THEORY OP THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES 93

As we have for any one appulse, viewed as a momentary impulse,

An = f^^dt
J
==
-lf^^dt= -3 C 'f^l^ Rdt (" (94)
dt 2J a dt J aVl— «2

(cf. Watson's Theoretical Astronomy, p. 519) we may regard e, a, v as constant

and equal to the values at the middle of the appulse. Therefore

3e sin v r^ ,„_,
An = j udt (95)
avl — eVo

(m) Bottlinger's method of calculation also adapted to appulses without

eclipses.

BoTTLiNGER, whose analysis we have here followed, caUs the quantity

/Rdt the impulse, and designates it by J. Hence by means of (93) we may
write

L-Lo=-^^^J(t-t') (96)

And for the accumulated effect of a series of appulses we have for equation
(92) the form

VI Be sin Vi
AL = L-Lo = -2,^:^7X^7 -^iC^-O (97)

And as a and e are constant for aU eclipses and near appulses, we may write
this expression

AL = L - Lo = ,
y
avl — ^ T^
sin v^J, {t - t') (98)

In using this formula, we have to substitute individual values for the several
eclipses and appulses, and sum up the values after multiplying by the interval
(i — i,). This is not very convenient, and we may shorten the operation by
computing the change mean motion An for each eclipse or appulse; then, on
of

summing up the Ari-series we obtain the active deviations of the mean motion
between each two eclipses or appulses. The terms of this first summed series
each multiplied by (it — i,-i), the interval between two eclipses or appulses, when
94 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

again summed up, give the sum of the accumulated perturbations in longitude.
Accordingly, from equation (94) using J = f Rdt we have

/QQ-> . 3e sin v ,

And since the integral J always has the same positive fore sign, we find that
when < < 180°, or the Moon in appulse is going from perigee to apogee,
0° «;

the mean motion n is diminished; but when 180° <v< 360°, or the Moon in
appulse is going from apogee to perigee, the mean motion n is increased. Hence
if the Moon is receding from the Earth the appulse retards it, but if it is approach-
ing the Earth the appulse accelerates it.

Proceeding along the line of thought here sketched, Bottlinger has cal-
culated the effect of a long series of eclipses by means of the formula

3e
(100) A«.. = -^^^^^^sin.^J.

and tabulated the results (cf. Prize Inaugural Dissertation, 1912, pp. 7-9). His
method was admittedly approximate, yet he found theoretical periodic oscillations

of the Moon's longitude closely agreeing with Newcomb's observed data, 1843,
1861, 1880; but departing from the Newcomb curve after 1895.
Bottlinger points out that his method is inadequate, in that the Moon's
orbit is always changing its shape and position, owing to oscillations of the line
of apsides, which may amount to ±30°. This uncertainty may introduce an
error of fifty per cent, in the calculated effect of any eclipse or appulse.

In Bottlinger did not suspect that appulses could have any effect
fact,

unless there was an eclipse; and as we now recognize that appulses without
contact with the Earth's shadow may exert almost as much influence as
eclipses, we see that the whole problem must be more profoundly investigated, at

some future time, and in a way to allow for the effects of both eclipses and
appulses.
As Bottlinger's researches can hardly fail to convince any impartial inves-
tigator that in part at least they rest on a true physical cause, we are not now
called upon to elaborate the details of the reduction of gravitation near the shadow
of the Earth. We may take such a result for granted, and especially in view of
the theoretical refraction and dispersion of electrodynamic waves brought to
light in the present investigation.
 theory of the transmission of physical forces 95

Conclusion

From this investigation of the Transmission of the Force of Gravitational

Attraction across space and through the sohd masses of the planets, it is clear
that the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory will explain all known phenomena. This
theory definitely makes known to us both mathematical and physical grounds
for holding that a refraction, dispersion and perhaps absorption of gravitational
energy must take place when the electrodynamic waves traverse the solid body
of a planet like the Earth.

Such deflected wave energy is not lost in the Universe, but there is a slight
redistribution of it in space, by refraction and dispersion, and perhaps reduction
in intensity by absorption, if it is transformed into different wave lengths; so
that the resulting intensity of the Sun's action is decreased near the shadow of
the Earth. The Moon thus experiences a partial release from the Sun's control
in this region, as if repelled from the Earth by a small repulsive force, which New-
comb concluded in 1909 would be adequate to explain the Fluctuations. In
Bulletin No. 5 we shall give details to show that this theory is more rigorously
verified by exact investigation than Newcomb or any one else heretofore could

have believed possible.

The present theory of the Transmission of the Force of Gravity thus fulfills

all necessary mathematical and physical criteria, whether the path of action
be in free space, or through solid masses. Fermat's condition is complied
with by the Sun's gravitation: otherwise the Lunar Fluctuations would not be
what they are found to be by observation. The Sun's gravitation is therefore
transmitted in the form of Electrodynamic Waves, which thus take Fermat's
minimum path, under the conditions imposed by the principle of Least Action.
Newcomb's conclusion of 1909, that the tracing of the Lunar Fluctuations
to a variation in the attraction between the Earth and Moon would involve an
expenditure or absorption of energy somewhere in the solar system which —
then seemed to him difficult to admit — now becomes in fact one of the most
rigorous proofs of the actual conservation of energy. It would not be possible for
the Sun's gravitational waves to traverse the body of the Earth without a
slight change in the field of force in the region beyond, through refraction,
dispersion and perhaps absorption; yet this redistribution of the wave energy does
not alter its total amount, though the effective gravitational action on the Moon is

decreased.
If Gravitation were due to any other cause than electrodynamic waves, it

seems certain that the resulting action through the solid mass of the Earth could
96 THEORY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL FORCES

not rigorously fulfill the severe geometrical and physical conditions outlined in
the foregoing discussion. But Moon's Fluctuations actually are observed
as the
to fulfill these severe requirements of the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory, it in-
contestibly follows that this Theory alone accords with the known laws of Nature.

T. J. J. SEE

Starlight on Loutre,

Montgomery City, Missouri, June 6, 1917.

Issued September 12, 1917

PUBLISHERS:

THOS. p. NICHOLS, & SON CO., Lynn, Mass., U. S. A.

WM. WESLEY & SON, London © A. HERMANN ET FILLS, Paris

 RESULTS OF RESEARCHES
ON THE

ELECTRODYNAMIC WAVE-THEORY OF PHYSICAL FORCES

BULLETIN NO. 5

THEOEY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN

MOTION DEDUCED FROM PHENOMENA: RESULTS
EXPLAINED BY THE REFRACTION, DISPERSION AND
PERHAPS ABSORPTION OF PART OF THE SUN'S ELEC-
TRODYNAMIC WAYE ENERGY IN PROPAGATION
THROUGH THE EARTH.

Bt T. J. J. SEE

I Introductoey Remarks

When the first Bulletin of this series was completed, February, 1917, it did

not seem Ukely that an urgent demand would soon arise for the publication of

the details of the author's processes of discovery in regard to the Fluctuations

of the Moon's Mean Motion. But the persistence of almost total darkness in
certain quarters which ought to be sources of Light, and the danger that the
withholding of the processes that led to the discovery of the Physical Cause of
the Lunar Fluctuations, might contribute still further to the diffusion of error
in the Physical Sciences, has led to the impression that it would be better to pub-
hsh without further delay an outhne of the chief processes involved.
In entering upon such a course, for the diffusion of ideas appropriate to the
facts of Nature, one has to reckon on the probable persistence of Error now en-
trenched in the seats where Truth ought to prevail. Whatever the outcome of
the impending struggle, this disposition to persist in known error, by reason of
false pride, probably will not be worse than that
witnessed against the author's

efforts of 1909-10 to place Cosmogony on a scientific basis, which at length has

borne fruit in the reluctant but open recognition that practically all the previous

work on this extensive subject was unsound, and that the new cosmogonic proc-

(97)
98 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON's MEAN MOTION

esses set forth in the Capture Theory are correct.* Eight years is not long to
wait for the triumph of the laws which disclose to us the sublime processes under-
lying the formation of the Universe.
Thus the present prevalence of error in regard to the problems of the Moon's
Fluctuations and the cause of Universal Gravitation is not a source of discourage-
ment, but rather an occasion for genuine gratitude that it is possible for any one
to shed light on such difficult subjects, heretofore literally veiled in the impen-
etrable darkness of night. For I am confident that if the present Bulletins be
studied by fellow-laborers interested in Truth, they wiU not dwell on the unavoid-
able defects of the pioneer treatment of this difficult and endless subject, but
will rather seek to improve the imperfect outline now developed in treating of

the sublimest of Newton's unfinished problems — the Cause of Universal Gravi-

tation.

It usually happens that when a way through rough places is once opened by
the pioneer, improvements can be made in the greater leisure of those who foUow.
For as the attention of the follower is less occupied in opening the way, he nat-
urally is enabled to give more attention to the improvement of the detailed processes.
Yet this refinement is never possible till the pioneer work is done; and thus no
apology is required for the somewhat audacious course which it was necessary
to adopt to find a way out of the wilderness by which we have been
surrounded.
If there be others equally daring and more fortunate — andax fortuna ad-
justus, as Gauss said of Leverrier's independent leadership, anticipating Adams
in the matter of the discovery of Neptune — who may add to the discoveries
here outlined, I shall heartily welcome such effort. Hipparchus began the inves-
tigation of the Evection, the first of the Lunar Inequalities, about 140 B. C, but
left it to be completed by Ptolemy nearly three centuries later. In the course
of ages some seventy more sensible Inequalities in the Moon's Longitude have
been discovered, and at length explained theoretically by the series of eminent
mathematical astronomers who have flourished since the epoch of Newton.

*PoiNCARE, Darwin, Jeffreys, and many other eminent mathematicians have confirmed
the Capture Theory. In the Monthly Notices for January 1917, p. 199, Dr. J. H. Jeans con-
cludes that weighed in balances unduly weighted to favor the rotational theory of Laplace
"the hypothesis has been found wanting." .."we can say with some confidence that the
rotational theory cannot explain the origin of the Solar System."
Many readers will remember that in A. N. 4308, Feb. 1909, Laplace's hypothesis was
not only shown to be wrong, on perfectly unassailable dynamical grounds, but the much more diffi-
cult constructive work of developing a valid theory outlined (cf. A. N. 4341, 4343, and my Re-
searches on the Evolution of the Stellar Systems, Vol. II, 1910). Just why English thought
should so often lag years behind that of the rest of the world is not apparent.
 THEORY OP THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 99

The Lunar Fluctuations are the last of the outstanding anomaUes in the
motion of the Moon, of which the treatment was begun by Hipparchus over
2,000 years ago. If others add to the present efforts, as Ptolemy did to those of
Hipparchus, and thus contribute to the perfection of the Theory of Universal
Gravitation, — which should now become possible, in view of the insight acquired
into the physical cause underlying this chief force of Nature — sensible dis-

crepancies will quite disappear from our Theories of the Celestial Motions.
But in outlining the new theory of the Lunar Fluctuations it becomes ad-
visable to glance at the recent progress of the subject, and above aU to point
out the steps by which Professor Newcomb established the existence of these
hitherto Unexplained Fluctuations.

Principal Results of Newcomb's Last Researches on the Moon's Mean

Motion, 1909

It known
is well that just before his death, July 11, 1909, the late Professor
Simon Newcomb, by was able to bring to a satisfac-
well nigh incredible effort,
tory conclusion a series of researches on the Motion of the Moon which had seri-
ously occupied his attention for over forty years. This last work of Newcomb
was published in the Astronomical Papers of the American Ephemeris and Nautical
Almanac, 1912, Vol. IX, part I, under the title: "Researches on the Motion of
the Moon and related Astronomical Elements based on observations extending
from the era of the Babylonians until A.D. 1908."
But prior to the appearance of this posthumous Memoir, Newcomb had
published the chief results of his researches in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society for January, 1909. In this paper he states that he had now
revised the results of his Researches on the Motion of the Moon, 1878, and that
altogether the data used in his latest researches cover a period of more than 2,600
years. The observations utilized embrace:

1. The eclipses of the Moon recorded in Ptolemy's Almagest, observed

between 720 B.C. and 134 A.D.

2. The observation of eclipses by Arabian astronomers, between 829 and

1004 A.D.

3. The observations of eclipses of the Sun and of occupations of stars by

the Moon, made by Gassendi, Hevelius, and others, between 1620 and 1680.

4. Observations of occultations of stars by the Moon from 1670 to 1908.

100 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON's MEAN MOTION

The observational material is thus very complete, but naturally not of equally
good quality in the different periods. After 1680 the modern records offer a fair
degree of precision, but frequent gaps in the observations occur during the last
half of the 18th century; and it is only since 1820, and especially 1829, that the
records are fairly continuous, and of the increasing accuracy attained in our own
time.
The recent exhaustive researches of Professor E. W. Brown appear to de-
termine with precision the action of every known mass of matter upon the Moon,
and seem to prove beyond serious doubt the reaUty of the large Unexplained
Fluctuations in the Moon's motion to which Professor Newcomb had called at-
tention at various times during the past forty years.
Hansen's researches in the Lunar Theory had extended over many years,
and the resulting Tables of the Moon, published by the British Government
in 1857,had been prepared with great care. Accordingly it was confidently
expected that they would accurately represent the Moon's motion for an almost
indefinite time. Yet after they had been issued only a few years the Moon began
to depart from the assigned longitudes so conspicuously as to occasion great
surprise among astronomers. It appears that Newcomb began the serious study
of the Moon's motion about 1868, and in 1869 he first called attention to the
inconsistencies between theory and observation.
In 1871 Newcomb visited Europe, and with Delaunay's active co-opera-
tion, searched for several months in the archive records of the Paris Observatory
for old observations which would illuminate the motion of the Moon during the
two preceding centuries. The search was very successful, and gave Newcomb's
Researches on the Motion of the Moon, 1878, a high degree of precision; so that
in 1909 he justly remarks that his latest researches modify but slightly the con-
clusions reached in the work of 1878.
The abstract of theMemoir of 1912 included in the Monthly Notices for Jan-
uary, 1909, is accompanied by Tables, and a diagram showing graphically the

effect of the total Fluctuation. The significance of Newcomb's last work on the
motion of the Moon can scarcely be overrated, because he was the recognized
master of the subject, and combined with his practical discussion of observations
also the results of Brown's careful revision of the purely mathematical part of
the Lunar Theory.
Taking it for granted thatBrown's exhaustive researches had allowed for
the action of aU known bodies, and that no imknown bodies exist, Newcomb
concluded by saying: "I regard these fluctuations as the most enigmatical phe-
nomenon presented by the celestial motions, being so difficult to account for by
 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 101

the action of any known causes, that we cannot but suspect them to arise from
some action in nature hitherto unknown."
After discussing the various possible known causes, such as tidal friction,
change in the Earth's rotation, etc., which might modify the Moon's motion
by amounts not yet calculated accurately, Newcomb doubts their adequacy to
meet the difficulty, and finally adds: "The preceding suggestions seem to me
to include every known cause of action. If we pass to unknown causes and in-

quire what is the simplest sort of action that would explain all the phenomena,
the answer would be — a fluctuation in the attraction between the Earth and
Moon. Accepting the law of the conservation of energy, such a fluctuation would
involve an expenditure or absorption of energy somewhere in the solar system,
which it seems difficult to admit. Precisely what changes of gravitation would
be required t have not yet computed; but it seems quite likely that they would
be below any that could be determined by experimental methods on the Earth.
Itwould be natural to associate them with the Sun's varying magnetic activity
and the varying magnetism of the Earth; but I cannot find that we have any
data on this subject which would enable us to base any law upon varying mag-
netic action. At present I see nothing more to do than to invite the attention
of investigators to this most curious subject."
"One general result of the present state of things is that we cannot draw
any precise conclusions from a discussion of the Moon's motion in longitude,

how refined soever we may make it. For example, it is impossible to derive from
observation the accurate coefficient of the 18.6-year nodal inequahty in longi-
tude, owing to the varying fluctuation."
"It is also not possible to predict the future motion of the Moon with pre-
cision. Ifwe require our ephemerides of the Moon's longitude to be as exact
as possible, we must correct the tabular mean longitude from time to time by

observations."

II Analysis of the Four nearly Commensurable Cycles Connected with

THE Recurrence of Eclipses

The principal echpse cycles, incessantly repeated in theory of the Moon's

motion, are the following:

1. The Saros, made up of 223 Synodic months = 6585.32 days, discovered

by the Chaldeans and used at Babylon for predicting the return of eclipses, in

conjunction with the eclipse year of 346.62 days.

102 THEOEY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON's MEAN MOTION

2. The eclipse year of 346.62 days, the average time of the Sun in passing
around the heavens from the Moon's node and returning to the same node again
as it retrogrades under the Sun's disturbing action in 18.6 years. Nineteen of
these ecKpse years make 6585.78 days, almost exactly equal to the cycle of the
Saros given above, which is 6585.32 days.
The difference in these two periods is only 0.46 of a day, and therefore after
18 Julian years 10.82 days (0'*.46 less than 19 eclipse years) the Saros of eclipses

is very nearly repeated, except that the location on the terrestrial globe is 0''.32

_ 7h4oni48s further west in longitude.

3. The Nodical or Draconitic month made up of 27'^. 21222; and thus 242 X
27^.21222 = 6585^357. This again is of almost the same length as the 223 synodic
months and 19 eclipse years defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 above.

4. The Anomalistic month made up of 27^55460; and thus 239 X 27^55460

= 6585"^. 549. Accordingly, after 223 months the Moon not only returns very
closely to its original position in respect to the Sun and node, but also in respect

to the line of apsides of the Moon's orbit; so that the perturbations near perigee,
during the interval of the difference in these two cycles, 6585'*.549 — 6585*^.32 =
0^.229 = 5*" 29".76 are so small as to modify but very slightly the return of the
cycle of eclipses composing the Saros.
Accordingly, these four fundamental Lunar cycles recur in the following
periods

1. The Saros = 223 synodic months = 6585'».32,

, 2. 19 eclipse years of 346<'.62 each = 6585^.78,

(l) (
'3. 242 Nodical or Draconitic months of 27^.21222 each = 6585<'.357,
4. 239 Anomalistic months of 27'*.55460 each = 6585^.549.

Now the Saros = 6585^32 = 18 Julian years 10.82 days, or 18.0293 sidereal
years of 365'*.2563582 (Hansen). And according to Neison the period of the
circulation of the Lunar Perigee is 8.855 years. In the 10th edition of his Outlines
of Astronomy, 1869, p. 472, Sir John Heeschel uses the period 3232*^.575343
= 8.85031 Julian years, which is only slightly different from the value cited above.
Accordingly, the forward motion of the Perigee will carry it twice around
the heavens in 17.71 years, while the Node revolves in the retrograde direction
in 18.6 years. Thus if we call Q the yearly motion of the Node, and ro the
corresponding motion of the Perigee, we have
n = - 19°.35484 = - 360° / 18.6 ,

(2)
© = + 40°.6550 = + 360° / 8.855 .
 THEOEY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 103

It may be well to notice that the foregoing results, for the chief Lunar cycles,

were determined with very remarkable accuracy before the time of Hipparchus,
about 140 B.C. Full details of the methods of calculation developed at Alex-
andria are given in Ptolemy's Almagest, Book IV; and, as has been justly ob-
served by many eminent authorities, exhibit an astonishing insight into the Theory
of the Moon's motion.
In the Almagest, Book IV, Chapter 2, Ptolemy deals with the Moon's Peri-
odic Time, and shows how the Lunar cycles may be deduced from the observa-
tions of eclipses recorded at known intervals in years, months and days. From
somewhat superficial estimates he says the older observers made the Saros interval
6585 1-3 days (that is, 18 solar years, 10 5-6 days). This corresponds to 223
Lunations, 239 returns of the Anomaly, 242 returns of the Latitude, 241 revolu-
tions of the Longitude, with 10 2-3 degrees left over, which the Sun traverses in
18 circuits, wherewith the restoration of the Sun and Moon is complete in respect
to the fixed stars.
In order to make these cycles commensurable with whole days, Ptolemy
says they multiply by 3, which gives 19756 days, corresponding to 3 Saroses,
in 669 Lunations, 717 returns of the Anomaly, 726 returns of the Latitude, 723

returns of the Longitude, with 32 degrees left over (exactly 32° 12' 36")) which the
Sun completes in 54 circuits (54 Egyptian years and 46 days).
Ptolemy remarks by comparing the Chaldean records of eclipses with
that
those observed in his own time Hipparchus found that these periods are not
exact; but the commensurability is more precise for a period of 126007 days and
1 equinoctial hour (345 Eygptian years, 82 days and 1 hour). In this period
he finds 4267 Lunations completed, 4573 returns of the Anomaly, 4612 circum-
ferences of the ecliptic, less 73^ degrees, which the Sun falls short of completing
in 345 circuits, to restore the Sun and Moon to the same situation in respect to
the fixed stars. He finds the Moon's period by dividing 126007^.041666 by 4267
Lunations, and gets 29.5305939 mean solar days, which agrees with our present
value, 29.53059 days.
Already in the early days of the Alexandrian School, it was recognized that
in 6585 1-3 days there were 241 revolutions of the Moon in respect to the fixed

stars, but only 239 revolutions with respect to the perigee or anomaly. Hence
the length of the anomahstic month admitted of accurate calculation; and similar
reasoning applies to the duration of the Synodic, the Sidereal, and the Nodical
or Draconitic months. The near coincidence of 19 eclipse years with the Saros
of 223 lunations doubtless was fully understood by the Babylonians, from whom
Hipparchus obtained records of the earliest eclipses preserved by Ptolemy.
 104 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON's MEAN MOTION

By comparing the data of three Lunar echpses observed at Babylon in the

366th and 367th years of the era of Nabonassar {Almagest, Book IV, Chap. 10)
with those of three others accurately observed at Alexandria in the 547th year
of the same era of Nabonassar, Hipparchus was enabled to determine the eccen-
tricity and apogee of the Moon's orbit at epochs separated by 180 years; and

to find from the positions of the instantaneous orbits at these distant epochs
the rate of the progressive revolution of the orbit in space. The three early Lunar
eclipses thus used were those of Dec. 23, 383 B.C., June 18, 382 B.C., and Dec.
12, 382 B.C.; and the three later Lunar echpses, those of Sept. 22, 201 B.C.,
March 19, 200 B.C., and Sept. 12, 200. B.C., (cf. Manitius' Translation of

Ptolemy's Almagest, Teubner, 1912, Vol. I, pp. 247-252).

For correcting the mean motion of the tMoon in Longitude and Anomaly,
Ptolemy followed Hipparchus in using Lunar eclipses recorded at the remotest
available epochs, namely those of March 8, 720 B.C., and Oct. 20, 134 A.D. —
the total interval involved being 311783 days, 23 1-3 equinoctial hours (cf.

Manitius, Translation of Ptolemy's Almagest, Book IV, Chap. VII, Vol. I,

p. 235.)

And for the correction of the motion in Latitude Ptolemy used eclipses of

equal magnitudes, at the same node, likewise separated by a great interval of

time — namely, that of April 25, 491 B.C., and April 5, 125 A.D. After some
corrections he makes the interval between corresponding Latitudes of the Moon
to be 224609 days; and thence deduces once for all the periodic motion of the
Moon in Latitude.

These brief illustrations of the Hipparchus and Ptolemy enable

methods of

us to realize that the cycles of the modern Lunar Theory are merely considerable
refinements of those used in the Alexandrian School, which had already carried
the determinations to a high degree of accuracy, and developed methods of inves-
tigation which will always be used by astronomers.

Ill Determination of the Periods op the Hitherto Unexplained

Fluctuations or Outstanding Inequalities in the
Moon's Mean Motion

From the above data, it follows that the Node will retrograde through 360°
in 18.6 years, but in the same time the Lunar Perigee will progress through
an angle of 756°. 183 = 720° + 36°. 183; so that after an interval of 18.6
years the Perigee is displaced forward by 36°. 183 in respect to the restored
Node.
 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 105

(i) Determination of the period of the 60-year Fluctuation.

It is very easily shown that owing to the relative magnitudes of these direct
and retrograde revolutions the angular conjunctions will tend to recur in the
regions of 360°, 240°, 120°, like the actual conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and

Fig. 1. Illustration of the progress of the Moon's Perigee in respect to the Node, in
the 61.7-year Fluctuation, the new theory of which is almost exactly analogous to the cele-
brated 900-year Inequality in the mean motion of Jupiter and Saturn, the physical cause of
which was discovered by Laplace in 1785.

Saturn in the theory of the celebrated 900-year Inequality which was first theo-
retically explained by Laplace in the year 1785. Here, too, as in the theory
of Jupiter and Saturn, the conjunction lines move forward. The amount of the

displacement is 36°. 183 in 18.6 years; and in 3.31648 such periods, 3.31648 X
18.6 years = 61.7006 years, the angular conjunction which started out at the
angle 360° will revolve forward through 120°, and the cycle of angular conjunc-
106 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION

tions at all three points will begin over again, exactly as in the Great Inequality
of Jupiter and Saturn. This leads at once to the second Long Inequality in the
Moon's Mean Motion, which, without suspecting the cause, Newcomb estimated
at "60 years, more or less." His judgment of the period was surprisingly ac-
curate; and as he concluded that the coeflBcient might be about 3".0, here again

his value could be adopted.

(n) Determination of the Period of the Great Fluctuation in 277.590 years.

In the case of the Great Fluctuation in the Moon's mean motion, of which
Newcomb estimated the period at about 275 years, the calculation of the period
is somewhat similar to that just cited, but also somewhat different. It is physi-
cally obvious that the modification of the Sun's gravitation in passing through
the body of the Earth will depend on the relative shifting of the line of angular
conjunctions Node-Perigee.
Now it is easily found by calculation that the angles of the Node-Perigee
are in angular conjunction, on a line 11°. 670 in advance of the original conjunction,
after an interval of 17.9971 years. For in this time the Perigee progresses over

an arc of Itt + 11°. 670, and the Node retrogrades over an arc of 27r — 11°. 670,

and meet exactly at the conjunction line specified.

The problem thus arises to find the interval in which this secular displace-
ment of the angular conjunction fine will complete the cycle in the Moon's mo-
tion due to the reduction of gravitation near the shadow of the Earth. In each
period of 17.9971 years, the node retrogrades through the angle 2-rr in respect

to the shifting mean position of the Perigee, and in the same interval the Perigee
progresses through the double of this angle, 47r, in respect to the retrograding mean
node; so that on the average their opposite motions amount to 677 in 17.9971
years.
As the physical effect of the reduction of gravity near the shadow of the Earth
is the same whether the shifting conjunction line Node-Perigee refer to ascending
or descending node, we perceive that this advancing conjunction line need only sweep
over the angle ir to give the required interval for completing the cycle due to the changes

of gravitation near the shadow of the earth.

Now 180° / ir.670 = 15.422, and therefore in an interval of 15.422 X

17.9971 years = 277.590 years, the cycle of the changes of gravitation near the
shadow of the Earth will be complete.
This is the period of the Great Fluctuation in the Moon's Mean Longitude
which Newcomb estimated at 275 years, from the modern observations, and
 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 107

used in calculating the secular acceleration from the eclipse records extending
over 2,600 years since the era of the Babylonians.
The diagram on page 108 presents to the eye a continuous representation
of the changes in Node (outside circle) and Perigee (inside circle) during 18 years.
At the end of 18 years they both are in conjunction at 1, near the original line
of conjunction, 360°, but 11°.670 further forward. In each of these periods of
18 years the Nodes turn to every part of the heavens, so that eclipses occur all

around the Earth's orbit, with the Earth and Moon at all possible distances from
the Sun. In this interval the lunar Perigee revolves twice, and the Node once;
so that the effect of the progression of the Perigee goes through symmetrical
phases in respect to the Earth's orbit in 18 years, as shown by the above
diagram.
This diagram also illustrates the secular progress of the line Node-Perigee,
the restoration to parallelism in this conjunction line, advancing by 11°. 670 every
17.9971 years, and requiring 277.590 years for completing the full cycle of a semi-
circumference.
We may express this result also by observing that physically the decrease
of gravitation near the shadow of the Earth wiU take place with equal effect

whether the eclipse be near the ascending or the descending node; and this de-

crease wiU always correspondingly affect the Moon's mean longitude. There-
fore, the 18-year movement of Node-Perigee conjunction line over the arcs 1, 2,

3, . . .w, where n = 15.422 at 180°, will comprise aU possible combinations of the

conjunction line Node-Perigee for modification of the Sun's gravity on the Moon
when near the shadow of the Earth.

(in) Determination of the 18-year period of the Saros cycle.

The Saros cycle is known that we need scarcely add that a minor
so well
disturbance in the Moon's mean longitude wiU recur in this period of 6585.32
days = 18.0293 years. In this period the symmetrical eclipse cycle of 223 Luna-
tions is complete and the eclipses begin to repeat themselves, with the Moon very near
the same relative position with respect to the Sun and Node, and also with respect

to the line of apsides or Perigee. This Saros cycle of the Chaldeans gives rise to

a minor disturbance in the Moon's mean longitude, with period of 18.0293 years,
and a coefficient of about 1".0. It is the smallest of the Moon's sensible Fluc-

tuations, yet indicated by the researches of Newcomb and Bottlinger, and

illustrated graphically in Bulletin No. 1.
 108 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION

Fig. 2. Illustration of the progress of both Node and Perigee for producing the Moon's Great
Fluctuation in 277.59 years. This also is somewhat analogous to the theory of Laplace's
Great Inequality in the mean motion of Jupiter and Saturn. (See p. 107.)
 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 109

IV Calculation of Formula for the Principal Fluctuations in the

Moon's Mean Motion: Comparison of the New Physical Theory
with Eighty Years of the Best Modern Observations
From the nature of the new Theoretical Fluctuations now brought to light,
and the physical cause on which they depend, as already fully explained, it ap-
pears that whilst the 'periods themselves may be calculated accurately from the
recognized elements of the Moon's motion, it seems likely that values of the co-
efficients for the Fluctuations can only be obtained from the refined discussion
of a long series of observations.

At present Newcomb's treatment of the subject is the only one available.

We shall therefore derive the coefficients from the data there discussed, altering
the empirical period of 275 years to the new theoretical period of 277.59 years,
found from the elements of the Lunar motion, and adding two new fluctuations
now brought to fight in periods of 61.7006 and 18.0293 years respectively.
Newcomb concluded that the Great Fluctuation had a period which might
lie anywhere between 250 and 300 years, but that the most probable value ap-
peared to be 275 years, corresponding to the angular coefficient 1°.31 in his equa-
tion for the Great Fluctuation in longitude

bv = 12".95 sin \
1°.31 {t - 1800.0) + 100°.6i (3)

(cf. Newcomb's Researches on the Motion of theMoon, 1912, p. 210).

Our new theoretical period, 277.590 years, differs from Newcomb's obser-
vational value, 275 years, only 2.6 years. In the Monthly Notices for January,
1909, Newcomb says that practically an angular coefficient 1°.32 will represent
observations as well as 1°.31. Our new theoretical coefficient is 1°. 29691, about
1°.30, and thus it evidently wiU represent observations practically as well as
Newcomb's larger values 1°.32 and 1°.31.

By the discussion of a system of equations (p. 210) Newcomb concludes that

the Moon's observed sidereal secular acceleration is expressed by the equation
7". 96 r^ where T is counted in Jufian centuries from the epoch 1800.0, Green-
wich Mean Noon. This will not necessitate any change in virtue of the new
theoretical period of 277.59 years, although it is possible that a slightly larger
value, about 8". 08, would be an improvement, for the reasons indicated in my
Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar Systems, Vol. II, 1910, pp. 290-291.
In regard to the Minor Fluctuations Newcomb seems to have reached no defi-

nite conclusion, either as to period or amplitude. In the Monthly Notices for

January, 1909, which is an abstract of his whole Memoir of 1912, he says: "The
110 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON's MEAN MOTION

minor deviations during the past 100 years may be empirically represented by
a trigonometric series, the principal term of which would have a period of 60
years, more or less, and an amplitude of perhaps 3". But we have no reason to
believe that, how accurate soever the representation may be by such a series,

it will represent the future course of the Moon." This remark clearly shows
that Newcomb regarded a physical theory of the Moon's Fluctuations an urgent
desideratum of Science.
BoTTLiNGER {Dissertation, p. 21) examined the question of the short period
fluctuation more closely than Newcomb had done; and although inferring that

Newcomb 's data supported the theory of an 18-year inequality, he sees nothing
of a 60-year fluctuation, merely remarking, "Man kann vermuten, dasz die
18 Jahrige Fluktuation Newcombs ein wesentliches, periodisches Glied der Mond
bewegung ist, wenn auch die wahre Ursache uns unbekannt ist." He points
out that just as the Lunar eclipses are irregularly periodic, so also will be the
action of the shadows in reducing the gravitation of the Sun at these times.
Hence it is not at aU necessary that the curve of the shadow effect should be very
regular in appearance.
BoTTLiNGER Considered the agreement between his calculated shadow effects,
—
1830 1895, and Newcomb's investigations so striking as to justify the convic-
tion that it pointed to the true cause of the Moon's unexplained fluctuations.
In order to obtain a correct view of the total fluctuation in the Moon's mean
motion, it is necessary to recognize clearly all the possible separate components
of which it is made up. The chief component fluctuations, in order of duration,

are as follows:

1. The Great Fluctuation, depending on the Perigee's relative shift through

an angle of An + 11°. 670 with respect to a fixed node in a period of 17.9971 years.
The movable conjunction line Node-Perigee shifts 11°. 67 each time and revolves
through 180° to the other fixed (descending) node in 15.422 such periods, thus
completing the cycle of the long period disturbance in 277.590 years. The Great
Fluctuation appears to have a coefficient of about 13".0.

2. The Large Fluctuation, with period of 61.7006 years, and coefficient 3".0,

depending on the shifting of the three Node-Perigee conjunction lines which start

at the fixed angles 360°, 240°, and 120° relatively to the Earth's orbit or fixed

stars. At each complete revolution of the Moon's node, 18.6 years, the Perigee,
by its more rapid motion, revolves forward relatively to these points through an
angle of 36°.183; and after 3.31648 such periods, 3.31648 X 18.6 years = 61.7006
years, the Perigee shifts through 120° and thus meets the next original fixed
 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOOn'S MEAN MOTION 111

Node-Perigee point, when the cycle begins over again, exactly as at the
outset.

3. The Short Period Fluctuation, depending on the Saros cycle of 223 Luna-
tions = 6585.32 days = 18.0293 years, if the length of the sidereal year be taken
at 365.2563582 days, as concluded by Hansen and Olufsen. As this is the

ecHpse cycle discovered by the Babylonians, the length of the period requires
no explanation; and we merely add that the coefficient of this fluctuation appears
to be about 1".0.

4. The Still Shorter Fluctuation, depending on one-third of the Saros, 6.01465

years, in which period the Node-Perigee angles shift in opposite directions through
very nearly the relative angle of 2^, so as to be near the first conjunction line at
240°, as explained in paragraph 2, above. This minor fluctuation would appear
to have a coefficient not exceeding 0".5. As the comparison of theory with ob-

servations is not yet very refined, we have not attemped to treat this fluctuation
in the present paper, nor in Bulletin No. 1, but merely commend it to the atten-
tion of future investigators.

5. The Minute Fluctuation, depending on the eclipse year of 34-6.62 days,

and too small to be certainly recognized in the present state of observation. The
coefficient probably does not exceed 0".2; but exact calculations have not yet
been made on this point, and the value is uncertain.

6. The Infinitesimal Fluctuation depending on the Synodic month. Here

the coefficient may be evanescent, and perhaps vanishes entirely when the line
of Nodes is nearly perpendicular to the direction of the radius vector Sun-Earth
and the Moon's path is correspondingly remote from the axis of the Earth's shadow
in space. At present these infinitesimal fluctuations have a purely theoretical
interest, and thus the consideration of their practical importance must be left

to the future.
The Great Fluctuation may be defined as in Newcomb's formula, but with
the period 277.590 years, instead of 275 years, the annual coefiicient being thus
reduced from 1°.31 to 1°. 29691. Thus the secular equation would be as in Bulle-
tin No. 1.

ALs = 13".0 sin \

1°.29691 {t - 1800.0) -|- 100°.6} (4)

In hke manner the Large Fluctuation, with period of 61.7006 years, is rep-
resented by the secular equation

AL2 = 3".0 sin i

5°.83597 (t - 1800.0) + 126°.35 (5)
112 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION

And the Short Period Fhictuation is represented by the equation

(6) ALi = 1°.0 sin \

19°.9675 {t - 1800.0) + 239°.42 \

Accordingly, it appears probable that these three equations wiU contain the
whole theory of the Moon's sensible Fluctuations; and enable us to deduce the
theoretical fluctuations at any period of time whatsoever. The table and diagram
given in Bulletin No. 1 show the agreement between theory and observation
during the past 79 years, 1829.5 to 1908.3. With the above adjustment of periods
and coefficients there remains outstanding only 15 residuals larger than 1".0 and
most of these somewhat irregular, as if vitiated by systematic errors. On the
whole, the indications, from the theory of probabihty, are that with the average
residual of 0".70, there can be no outstanding fiuctuation in the Moon's motion
greater than 1".0.
A higher degree of refinement than this can scarcely be hoped for in the pres-
ent state of Science. For owing to the mountains the Moon's hmb is somewhat
rough and uneven, so that the time of an occultation is uncertain by nearly 0^066,

or 1".0. Thus for the first time in history the Lunar Theory approaches com-
pletion, by the perfect conformity of observation with gravitational theory so
modified as to take account of the reduction of the Sun's gravity in the trans-
mission of the Electrodynamic Waves through the body of the Earth.

In more complete explanation of the diagram, given in Bulletin No. 1,

it suffices to note that the observed deviations from gravitational theory are
represented by the small circles. The Great Fluctuation AL3 with period of

277.59 years is first sketched; and the Large Fluctuation AZ/2 with period of 61.7
years then added to the Great Fluctuation; finally the Short Period Fluc-
tuation ALi, with period of 18.0293 years, is added to AL3 + AL2, and the final
(=S

result of all three fluctuations SAL, = ALi

(=1
+ AL2 -)- AL3 is indicated by the
larger circles. The series of larger circles are seen to foUow the small circles with
truly remarkable conformity.
As was justly remarked by Newcomb, the Great Fluctuation represents the
observations roughly. The Large Fluctuation in 61.7 years brings a better accord-
ance; and the Short Period Fluctuation in a Saros smoothes the irregularities still

further, giving us an accordance between observation and theory which can scarcely

be improved. The average residual is about 0".70, 27 minus, 29 plus, and 8 plus
or minus. The minus residuals slightly exceed the plus residuals, but they are
also slightly less numerous. Thus it is very doubtful if the present represen-
tation of the observations can be improved upon.
 THEOKY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 113

Accordingly, we appear to be confronted with the remarkable fact that by means

of the new equations, based on physical theory, it is now possible to improve the accur-
acy of the Moon's mean motion at least a dozen fold. As the improvement rests
on true causes it ought to be of value in the discussion of both ancient and
modern observations.
If there be those who hesitate to acknowledge this obvious result they will
find an uncertain attitude the more difficult, owing to this twelve-fold improve-
ment in the accuracy of the Moon's theoretical mean longitudes.
The physical theory which represents the Moon's Motion so perfectly for
the eighty years of most exact observations can scarcely fail us in coming ages.
Thus at last we seem to have full assurance of reconciling the theory with the
observations of the Moon — a problem which has presented difficulties far greater

than that offered by any other heavenly body. This difficulty is due partly
to the complicated character of the Lunar perturbations, and partly to the great
proximity of our Moon and the great length of time over which it has been ob-
served; so that small forces may at length become sensible* in the theory of
its motion. In no other way could we have traced to its source the decrease of
the Sun's Gravity near the shadow of the Earth. The Moon has thus intro-
duced into Celestial Mechanics a new gravitational criterion of extreme delicacy.

V Expression for the Possible Absorption of Gravitational Energy

Propagated Through a Spherical Earth: the Residual Character
OP THE Moon's Great Fluctuation of 277.590 Years Foreseen by
BOTH Newcomb and Bottlinger, and now Confirmed by Calculation.

In §3 of Bottlinger's Inaugural Dissertation will be found a mathematical

investigation of the loss of gravitation by absorption due to the rays passing
through the spherical body of the Earth. It may not be necessary to consider
view of the refraction and dispersion of the energy concluded from the
this, in

Electrodynamic Wave-Theory; but it seems best to overlook no cause which

might contribute to the Lunar Fluctuations till the true physical cause of this
phenomenon is clearly established, which is the object of the present paper.

*It should be noted that the average residual 0".70 is invisible in a six-inch telescope,
such as a transit circle. At the Moon's distance 0".l corresponds to about 500 feet, 1".0
to 5,000 feet, about a mile. It seems probable that no fluctuation remains in the Moon's
mean motion greater than the average residual of 0".70, which in absolute distance corre-
sponds to about a kilometer. Accordingly we have the Moon's longitude so improved that
the outstanding fluctuations are invisible in our best transit circles, and in absolute mag-
nitude, at the Moon's orbit, do not exceed a kUometer!
114 THEORY OP THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION

BoTTLiNGER justly remarks that if a screening of Gravitation exists, then

even for bodies of finite extent, the Newtonian law is no longer valid. For when
one heavenly body attracts another, the gravitational rays proceeding from the
interior of the mass have to penetrate through the surrounding mass and are
thereby slightly enfeebled. Hence arises a loss of gravitational energy.

He then considers the interaction between a mass-point and a sphere made

up of homogeneous concentric layers. If [i be the mass of the mass-point, M
the mass of the sphere, R its radius, and a = a{r) its density; then the attraction
on [I is the integral of the acceleration vector to the elements of mass of the sphere

(7) z = fBdm

where

(8) B = %e-t''

k^ being the Gaussian constant of attraction, k the absorption constant, and <f>

the angle about the axis of symmetry, and the other quantities as illustrated
in the figure.

Fig. 3. Bottlingee's Theory of a slight absorption of a ray of gravitation in traversing

the Earth.

Accordingly, the attraction becomes

(9) z = i B cos adm = 'k'^ \ l (Tdpdad<p sin a cos ae ~ V^^^

J

If we introduce the angle /8, the integration being between o and ^ , we have

(10) sina = -j sin/3 ; cos ado = -j cosfidfi

 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 115

Then, the definite integral for the attraction becomes

It cos |8 5

{p)(jd^dpd^ sin (3 cos /3e

~ "/'"'''
(ll)

where a = <s{r)=a y/W + S"" - 2RS cos /J (12)

BoTTLiNGER points out that in this expression the integral is independent

of A, the distance of the point [l from the sphere, and the attraction of the sphere
of concentric layers reciprocally as the square of the distance, as in the New-
tonian law. The constant of attraction alone remains indeterminate and a special
function of the property of the sphere. He then proceeds to show that a factor
should be introduced of the form

(1 - i/c(rfi) ,

the fraction f/cai? representing the loss of gravitational energy due to absorp-
tion. He calls this factor h, and deduces for the Earth

^+ ^ 160000
'

(1^)
o

This outlines sufficiently the method of treatment followed, and we need

only point out that the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory gives a much better physi-
cal basis for our reasoning than was available to Bottlinger. For we now see
that there may be both absorption of gravitational energy and a refraction and
dispersion of the waves propagated through a sphere made up of concentric shells.

This is essentially the constitution of the Earth, and the outcome will be the
production of the Fluctuations first recognized by Newcomb in the Moon's mean
motion from the comparison of pure gravitational theory with observations since

A.D. 1620.
It should be noted that the calculation already made of the period of the Long
Inequality in the Moon's Mean Longitude rests wholly on the facts of observation,
and is independent of any hypothesis as to the cause of the inequality. Yet the
period being deduced from the facts, we have shown that there should be a period
of 17.9971 years depending on the forces operating in the eclipse cycle, and leav-
ing also a small residual effect for producing the secular equation extending over
277.590 years, owing to the lack of perfect compensation in the disturbing forces
during the 18-year period.
If we by y the residual secular decrease of gravity during an eclipse
represent
cycle of eighteen years, and these disturbing forces themselves by an unknown
116 THBOEY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOOn's MEAN MOTION

function * depending on the Moon's distance r, and the Sun's distance r'; the
wave length X of any chief element of the Electrodynamic Waves causing gravi-
tation, the resistance p along the path of the ray through the terrestrial globe,

thus being a direct function of the density a, also depending on the moveable
Node and Perigee; then the total secular effect for all angles of the Node-Perigee
will take the form of the double integral:

in which the limits of the integral are fixed by the considerations above indicated,
and the unknown function has the form

*(^'r^' h' \' ^- "''")

And in regard to the cycle representing periodic changes of gravity during

the 18-year cycle, we shall have in like manner

On account of the change of the limits by ± ^ , a = 11°. 670, there arises

the small terms producing the secular parts in 277.590 years.

BoTTLiNGER estimates the residual effect which gives rise to the Great Fluc-
tuation in the Moon's motion at about two per cent, of the forces operating in

the 18-year period. The angle of the Node-Perigee conjunction line shifts for-
ward each time 11°.67; and as the whole circuit is 360°, this angular displace-

ment is 3.24 per cent, of the path of the perturbing forces. As the forces at work are
essentially proportional to the angular displacements occurring, it wiU be seen
that our present theory agrees very well with that held by Newcomb, 1909, and
BOTTLINGER, 1912.
 THEORY OP THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 117

In the Monthly Notices, January, 1909, Newcomb dwells on the fact that
the shorter fluctuations imply the larger disturbing forces. "The fact is," he
says, "that the variations of accelerating force necessary to produce the minor
fluctuations are much greater than the forces necessary to produce the great
one, the measure of this force being, not the actual deviation, but the degree
of curvature at each point of the line representing the path."

From what we have now seen it is obvious that a residual effect of imper-
fect compensation, repeating itself in a cycle extending gradually over a long

interval of time, explains all the phenomena. It was thus with the Great In-
equality in the mean motion of Jupiter and Saturn. Before Laplace's discovery
of the physical cause of this Great Inequality in 1785, it had proved so utterly
bewildering to astronomers that some of them even began to doubt the rigor
of the Newtonian law.
In the same way the most eminent mathematicians have recently admitted
that the Newtonian law as heretofore understood wiU not explain the Fluctua-
tions of the Moon's mean motion. Newcomb himself led the way by saying:
"I regard these fluctuations as the most enigmatical phenomenon presented
by the celestial motions, being so difficult to account for by the action of any
known causes, that we cannot but suspect them to arise from some action in

nature hitherto unknown."

Itwas from Laplace's procedure of 1785, in the case of the Great Inequality
of Jupiter and Saturn, combined with the new insight into the nature of Gravi-
tation, obtained from the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory developed since April,
1914, that I was enabled to detect the physical cause operating to produce the
observed Fluctuations of the Moon's mean motion. In his Inaugural Disserta-
tion, pp. 26-27, BoTTLiNGER states that he had searched for an inequality of be-

tween 250 and 300 years in the Moon's mean motion, but hitherto had been un-
able to find such a Long Period Inequafity.

VII Outlines op the Principal Phenomena Presented by the Great

Inequality in the Mean Motions op Jupiter and Saturn, for Bringing
out an Analogy with the Lunar Fluctuations, which Represent
A New Type op Long Inequality in the Celestial Motions.

(i) Brief description of the Great Inequality in the mean motions of Jupiter
and Saturn.

In his elementary work on Gravitation, pp. 143-155, §§163-177, Sir George

Airy gives a very instructive and very simple explanation of the physical cause
118 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION

of the great inequality in the mean motion of Jupiter and Saturn. He remarks
(p. 155) that the long inequality of Jupiter and Saturn is the most imposing by
its magnitude and the most celebrated for its history of any of the planetary

inequalities, having been known to astronomers for more than a century before
its cause at length was detected by Laplace in 1785. Airy points out that before
this great inequahty was explained theoretically astronomers were completely
bewildered by the strange irregularities in the motions of these planets, which
even cast doubt on the rigor of the Newtonian law.
It is weU known that in 1625 Kepler found evidence that the motions of
Jupiter and Saturn are not strictly uniform, but depart more and more from the
positions resulting from the elements of Ptolemy, as compared with the positions
given^by the elements deduced from the observations of Tycho Brahe (cf . Kepler,
Opera omnia, VI, pp. 617-18). In 1676 Halley perceived in the motions of
Jupiter and Saturn some variations which appeared to have contrary signs, and
which he imagined might run through 2,000 years, producing an equation of
3° 49' in the mean longitude of Jupiter and 9° 15' in that of Saturn (Phil. Trans.,

1683, p. 244). This result was therefore known to Newton at the time of the
publication of the Principia, 1687, but no doubt put aside temporarily for more
detailed investigation by Newton's successors.
In 1773 the subject was examined somewhat carefuUy by Lambert, but
in 1776 reinvestigated by Lagrange, who found that the inequality did not
increase indefinitely; and moreover that when Jupiter was retarded Saturn was
accelerated, and thus he concluded that there might be a long inequality depend-
ing in some unknown way upon the mutual actions of the two planets. Yet
in vain did Lagrange labor to find in the mutual actions of Jupiter and Saturn

the cause of the observed secular inequalities (cf. Memoires de I'Acad. des Sciences,

BerUn, 1783, p. 223).

At length Laplace was more fortunate, for in 1785 he detected in his analysis

certain terms with small divisors depending on the argument 2n — 5n' where
n is the mean motion mean motion of Saturn, resulting from
of Jupiter and n' the

the near approach to commensurability in the mean motions, and acquiring large
values by the double integration for the mean longitudes. Thus if R denote
the disturbing function, and s the epoch, or longitude of the planet at the assigned
date, the term for the perturbation in the mean longitude

(17) 5L = k
ff ^ dtdt
 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 119

will by actual integration yield terms of the form (cf. Laplace's Mecanique
Celeste, Lib. II, Chap. VII, §54, Chap. VIII, §65)

— + n — "n' nr '^i
-j^
^L = ML
_ kiP sin
Bill Mt/t
I
{in
Tz:
{in —— n Jt, -r
i'n')t
7^7^i
i'n'Y
II'
Q\ -\-
/.(OX
(^^^

which becomes large when the divisor in — i'n' is very small. In Dr. Hill's
New Theory of Jupiter and Saturn 2n - 5n' = — 1467".825.
Applying method of analysis to the planets Laplace found that the
this
mean motion of Saturn was being retarded throughout the whole of the 17th
century while that of Jupiter was being accelerated; but that during the 18th
century the process began to reverse. From these circumstances, and the above
considerations in the analysis of the mean motions, Laplace was enabled to
discover the physical cause of the phenomenon, and to calculate the period and

\ /

a
Fig. 4. Diagram of the Shifting Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, for illustrating
Laplace's discovery of the Cause of the Great Inequality, 1785.

amount of the mutual disturbance to the two planets, in a period of about 918
years.
Accordingly, from Laplace's theory it followed that during the first period
of 459 years Jupiter is accelerated and Saturn retarded, while in the second period

of the same length the reverse process goes on, Jupiter being retarded and Saturn
accelerated. The conjunctions of the two planets occur near 360°, 240°, and
120°, and thus are situated in longitudes differing by about 120°. And as the

mean motions are not quite commensurable, the line of the conjunctions shifts
120 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON S MEAN MOTION

slowly around the orbits, as shown by the figure (Airy, Gravitation, p. 145). The
entire cycle is complete in about 918 years, when the mutual action of the planets
is fully compensated, and the Great Inequality begins over again.
We have cited in some detail the history and circumstances of Laplace's
discovery of the cause of the celebrated long inequality in the mean
motion of Jupiter and Saturn, because it is very instructive, and presents an

Fig. 5. Repetition of Fig. 1, for illustrating the closeness of the similarity of the Moon's
61.7-year Fluctuations to the Great Inequality of Jupiter and Saturn.

analogy which finally proved effective in disclosing the cause of the Moon's
Fluctuations.
After what shown in the foregoing development it will be obvious that the
is

Fluctuations of the Moon's mean motion represents a new type of Long Inequality
in the Celestial Motions. The excellent agreement of the new physical theory
 THEOBY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 121

with the best observations of the eighty years immediately preceding 1908 appears
to be a clear indication that the new theory rests on true laws of Nature. We
have already shown how the different periods arise, and in Bulletin No. 1 given
the equations for calculating the Moon's position at any past or future time.
But it seems advisable to recall the progress in finding out the dissimilarity with
the phenomena of Jupiter and Saturn as well as the close analogy which enabled
the discovery to be made.

{it) Outline of Progress in dealing with the Moon's Fluctuations.

As the processes of discovery are scarcely less interesting than discovery

itself, it may not be out of place to record the fact that in some quite mysterious
way the impression steadily gained strength in my own mind, almost ever since
Newcomb announced the existence of the Unexplained Fluctuations in the
Moon's mean motion, 1909, that these irregularities eventually would be found
to be analogous to, but not exactly similar to the phenomena presented by the
Great InequaUty of Jupiter and Saturn. In the autumn of 1914 I sent a letter
containing such a suggestion, regarding the 60-year fluctuation, to Professor
E. W. Beown, but nothing ever came of it.

Late in November and early in December, 1916, while extending the re-

searches on the cause of Gravitation, I discovered that in traversing the terres-

trial globe the Electrodynamic Waves producing the Sun's gravitational attrac-
tion on the Moon, would be diminished in and near the shadow of the Earth,
by refraction, dispersion and perhaps by absorption. And as this theoretical
decrease of gravity by the interposition of the globe of the Earth in the path of
the Sun's gravitational attraction would give rise to the very periodic disturb-
ances of the Moon, in about eighteen years, which Newcomb's data had shown
from the observations, and Bottlinger inferred theoretically should exist, a
persistent search for the cause of the long-period fluctuation running through
275 years was kept up. At length, after the inquiry had been repeatedly re-

newed, under the most diverse forms, the cause of the Great Fluctuations with
period of 277.590 years was discovered. Owing to a slight undetected numerical
error it was at first believed to be 246.75 years, and so announced in the cable-

gram of Dec. 10, 1916. (A.N.)

After bringing to light this remarkable result, I was surprised to find that
Dr. Bottlinger, under the direction of Professor von Seeliger, had given some
thought to finding such a long inequality in the Moon's motion, depending on
eclipse action; yet he adds that, although he had searched carefully, hitherto
122 THEOEY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OP THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION

he had not been able to find such a long inequality. He points out that the forces
producing the 275 year inequality amount to only about two per cent, of those
more powerful forces operating to produce the 18-year inequality. Newcomb
also had called attention to the comparative feebleness of the forces producing
the 275 year inequality.
To bring out the difference between the Great Inequality of Jupiter and
Saturn and the Fluctuations of the Moon's motion we notice that in the case of
Jupiter and Saturn we have a mutual action of two planets with conjunctions near
longitudes 360°, 240°, and 120°, but slowly progressing and at length completely
compensated by the shifting of the lines of conjunction through angles of 120°.
In the case of the Moon's Fluctuations there is indeed a similar series of con-
junctions of the Node-Perigee movements, in contrary directions, also occurring
near longitudes 360°, 240°, and 120°; and these points also shift forward, some-
what as in the case of Jupiter and Saturn.
But this does not lead us at once to a similar result, because the Node and
Perigee are only lines; and can exert no forces on the system. Yet true physical
action on the Moon, owing to the Earth's interposition in the path of the Sun's
electrodynamic waves, must depend on the relative shifting of the perigee in
respect to the line of nodes; and therefore this indirect action occurs, and we
have to find the period for its complete compensation, in a semi-circumference,

as above explained.
The conjunction line Node-Perigee shifts 11°. 670 in a period of 17.9971 years,
and the cycle runs through 180°, corresponding to the position of the other node,

in 277.590 years. Therefore, whilst there is an analogy with the phenomena

presented by the celebrated Long Inequality of Jupiter and Saturn, there is also

a fundamental difference in the nature of the actions involved in the two cases.
One case represents direct actions between planets revolving in the same
direction, and coming into conjunction near certain shifting longitudes. The
other represents a relative shift of the Node-Perigee conjunction line, so as to
carry it through a Perigee cycle at the other node of the Moon's orbit, thereby
disturbing the Moon's mean motion in a period of 277.590 years. This is owing
to the variations of the Sun's action on the Moon near the shadow of the Earth,
as the conjunction line Node-Perigee slowly shifts till it reaches the original posi-
tion of the other node, and the phenomena once more begin to repeat themselves
in another similar period.
If BoTTLiNGER was justified in saying that should a period of about 275
years be found to result from the cycles of the eclipse periods and eclipse action
in modifying the Sun's gravity near the shadow of the Earth, then all the riddles
 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 123

of the Lunar Theory would be solved {Inaugural Dissertation, p, 27),, it would

seem indeed that we may now hope to have achieved this very wonderful result,
and thereby harmonized both the ancient and modern observations of the Moon,
extending from our own time through the Middle Ages, and the epoch of the
Arabians, to the period of the Alexandrian School, and from the records of Lunar
Echpses then preserved by Ptolemy to the era of the Babylonians, 720 B.C.,
thus embracing a total duration of 2,636 years!
This long record rests mainly on Lunar Eclipses, and naturally calls to mind
also that associated with the disaster to the Athenians at Syracuse, under Nicias,
in413 B.C., through the eclipse of the Moon, which was celebrated in verse by
Hamilton,* whose mathematical methods we have found so useful.
As the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory is shown to explain the Moon's Fluc-
tuations, to which the methods of Hamilton are immediately applicable, the
question may properly be asked whether, in turn, the discovery of the Cause
of the Fluctuations does not at the same time practically establish the Electro-
dynamic Wave-Theory of Gravitation, from observed phenomena?
It is to be remembered:

1. The Electrodynamic Wave-Theory does completely explain the Moon's

Fluctuations, which are utterly irreconcilable with the Newtonian form of Gravi-

tational Theory, developed before electrodynamic waves were known to exist,

orshown to be propagated with the velocity of light, which has been established
by modern electrical measurements.
2. Thus there are important gravitational phenomena which do not admit
of explanation except on the theory of wave action propagated in time, accord-
ing to Weber's Fundamental Law of 1846. And since we cannot ignore progress
in experimental science, it would appear necessary to adapt the traditional Theory
of Gravitation to electrodynamic action, experimentally established by Ampere
and his successors, and so entirely free from valid objections, that it perfectly
harmonizes the results of our laboratories with the most varied phenomena of
the heavens.

(Hi) The Outstanding Difficulties in the Lunar Theory finally overcome.

The Moon's motion long presented two outstanding difficulties which defied
theoretical explanation. The secular acceleration calculated by Laplace was
AL 10".1816213 T^ + 0".1853844 T'; but in 1853 Adams showed that it
=
was about 4" too large, and, as verified by Delaunay, should be only about

Graves' Life of Hamilton, 1882, Vol. I, pp. 145-6.

124 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION

6". 08, according to recent correctionsby Newcomb. The most ancient eclipses
observed at Babylon and preserved by Ptolemy indicated more nearly 12",
while the Arabian eclipses investigated by Newcomb in 1878 indicated a secular
acceleration of about S"A. The recent discussions of ancient ecUpses by Cowell,
Fotheringham and others have apparently rendered it certain that there are
no reliable indications of a secular acceleration in excess of about 8", yet this
value is established and harmonized with the eclipse records of the Arabians,
829 to 1004 A.D.
Thus there remained an outstanding difference of 2" between theory and
observation until the year 1909, when the present writer showed that the Moon
is a captured planet, nearing the Earth, from an original distance nearly twice
its present value, but approaching with such excessive slowness that the interval
since the Capture of the Moon is to be reckoned in something like 500 million
years. The difference of about 2" between theory and observation is thus an
indication to us of the origin of our Moon, by slow approach, under the secular
increase of the masses of both Earth and Moon, (cf . Researches on the Evolution
of the Stellar Systems, Vol. II, 1910).
This finally removed one of the long standing difficulties in the theory of
the Moon's motion; yet in the same year, 1909, an even greater one arose with
the definite confirmation by Newcomb of the existence of the Unexplained Fluc-
tuations. we have been able to show that the Fluc-
In the foregoing discussion
tuations arise from loss of effective gravitational energy when the Sun's attrac-
tion on the Moon has to be exerted through the body of the Earth. The Elec-
trodynamic Waves producing the Sun's gravity are both refracted, and dispersed
and perhaps somewhat absorbed, and thus partially deflected to one side in passing
through our globe; so that the Moon suffers a relative reaction when in or near the
shadow of the Earth, and thus arise disturbances in the Moon's motion depending
on the Saros, and other periodic cycles connected with the Node-Perigee movements.
The new physical theory of these gravitational disturbances conforms to
the observed periods of the Moon's hitherto Unexplained Fluctuations, and
thus represents the observations so perfectly as to give a twelve-fold increase
in the accuracy of the predicted places of our satellite, in the eighty years
of the best modern observations immediately preceding 1908. This impres-
sive fact must be held to justify the expectation that the new physical theory
wiU account for any outstanding fluctuations in the motion of the Moon which
the lapse of time may hereafter bring to light.
As the Theory rests on secure physical grounds and is fuUy borne out by
mathematical analysis of the geometrical relations involved, it must be held
 THEORY OF THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE MOON'S MEAN MOTION 125

phenomena which long proved so utterly bewilder-

to assign the true cause of the
ing to the most eminent authorities —
Hansen, Adams, Delaunay, Newcomb,
Hill, Darwin, Tisserand, Poincare, and E. W. Brown.
These geometers have laid the foundations on which the present theory is

built. Above every other investigator of our time Professor E. W. Brown has
perfected and confirmed the purely mathematical part of the Lunar Theory;
and his work alone made it certain that Newcomb 's conclusions as to the existence
of the Fluctuations rest on secure premises. This is the first necessary condition
of progress; for so long as the premises can be questioned, there can be no solid
advance towards the causes which underly the observed phenomena.
The writer's researches on the cause of Gravitation are as yet published

only in part, and the whole of the results may not be available to the reader
for some time. Without knowledge of this Electrodynamic Wave-Theory I

believe that no effective attack on the cause of the Moon's Fluctuations could
have been made.
The comprehensive treatment of the Lunar Theory given in Tisserand 's
Mecanique Celeste, Tome III, 1894, has been of service to many investigators.
Like BoTTLiNGER (Dissertation, p. 5) I too long ago noted his sagacious remarks,
concluding Chapter XIX, "Sur L'Etat Actuel de la Theorie de la Lune:"
"La theorie de la Lune se trouve arretee par la difficulty que nous venons
de developper; d^ja, a I'epoque de Clairaut, la gravitation paraissait impuissante
a expliquer la mouvement du perigee. EUe triomphera encore du nouvel obsta-
cle que se presente aujourd'hui; mais il reste a faire une belle decouverte!"

Accordingly, if we have settled the problem of the outstanding difference

of 2" in the secular acceleration, 1909, by the introduction of the new conception
of the Capture of the Moon; and of the Unexplained Fluctuations, 1916, by the
extension of the unpublished researches on the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of
Universal Gravitation, thus bringing to light a New Type of Long Inequality
in the Celestial Motions which may become sensible where gravitation acts through
solid bodies and suffers refraction, dispersion and perhaps absorption of the Elec-

trodjTiamic Waves on which the force depends, — then, indeed, it would seem
that we have now made and established the beautiful discovery foretold by Tisser-
and twenty-two years ago, but heretofore beyond the reach of the geometer and
natural philosopher, and, as was the case with the Great Inequality of Jupiter
and Saturn before it was theoretically explained by Laplace, in 1785, utterly

bewildering to the astronomer.

Starlight on Loutre,
Montgomery City, Missouri, June 18, 1917.
 Issued September 20, 1917.

PUBLISHERS:

THOS. P. NICHOLS & SON CO., Lynn, Mass., U. S. A.

WM. WESLEY & SON, London © A. HERMANN ET FILS, Paris

 RESULTS OF RESEARCHES
ON THE

ELECTRODYNAMIC WAVE-THEORY OF PHYSICAL FORCES

BULLETIN NO. 6

DEFINITE CONFIEMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION

By T. J. J. SEE

I Introductoey Remarks

In the opening paragraph to the Mecanique Celeste, Vol. I, 1799, Laplace

announces that "The nature of that singular modification, by means of which a
body is transported from one place to another, is now, and always wiU be, un-
known." Great indeed was the mystery then attaching to the nature of Force.
The origin of the Forces which govern the operations of the material universe
was so securely hidden that a feeling of despair came over the most illustrious
mathematicians. The was that very few natural philosophers even at-
result

tempted to penetrate the invisible processes of the ^therial Medium. Yet, as

^^e have seen, a gradual change of view has been in progress during the past cen-
tury, chiefly through the influence of the Experimental Researches of Faraday,
and the mathematical and physical ingenuity of Maxwell, who interpreted these

Researches to their successors.

In Bulletin No. 2 we have shown that Magnetic Attraction is due to decrease
of stress by systematic properly directed wave action. A magnet has two poles,

always exactly equal, owing to the very nature of the waves, and the way the waves
are directed in parallel planes normal to the lines of force, and largely normal to the

Magnetic Axis. Naturally the atoms have two corresponding poles, as viewed
from either side of their equators, and the action of the entire Magnet represents

tae integral effect of the waves from aU the atoms.

As Airy points out in his Treatise on Magnetism, 1870, p. 10, this attraction

to poles, -or Duality of Powers, is characteristic of Magnetism. But since the

matter of artificial magnets once existed without the power of Magnetism, and
may lose that power or have it greatly reduced by heating, shock, chemical action,

(127)
128 DEFINITE CONPIEMATION OF THE DISCOAHERY OF THE

etc., we justly conclude that the constitution of a magnet depends on the mole-
cular arrangement, or the directions of the waves emitted by the atoms.
Beyond doubt the atoms of a piece of steel devoid of magnetism emit waves
just like those of a magnet of the same size and material, but in the former body
the waves are not hned up in parallel planes, as in the latter. And thus in un-
magnetized bodies the waves are so confused by haphazard orientation that the
magnetic power is lost by this mutually destructive tendency, whereas in mag- — •

netized bodies the well ordered arrangement of the atoms gives magnetic power,
which necessarily is directed to two equal poles. This arrangement accounts for
the existence of poles and their physical properties.

If this Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Magnetism alone be admissible for

explaining the power of magnetic attraction, as shown in Bulletin No. 2, then
it follows also that the atoms of aU bodies should emit waves which may give
some power of attraction. Now Faraday proved experimentally that aU bodies
are magnetic — the power varying from one body to another simply in degree —
and thus it is established by careful experiments that their atoms do actually
emit waves which under experimental influence may be more or less lined up
in parallel planes.
Accordingly, bodies essentially non-magnetic or but feebly magnetic, like
the Sun, Moon and Planets, necessarily must be centers of wave action, — just

as the self-luminous stars are known to be by their light. Yea, as proved in

Bulletin No. 3, the magnetic observations themselves have definitely shown
that the Sun and Moon both exert magnetic influence. And this power obviously
proceeds from those individual atoms which are ordered and arranged to give
magnetic action.
Now the great preponderance of the non-magnetic atoms of the Sun and
Moon, which are arranged haphazard, must also emit waves like those which
are magnetic; yet with their present orientation these waves so destroy one
another that there is no action in respect to two poles, but only a residual action in

respect to the center of each mass. This unsystematized wave action towards the centers

of the Sun, Moon and Planets, is what we call gravitation. It is a curious fact that

in his Article on Gravitation, Ency. Brit., 9th edition. Sir Robert Ball estimates

the force of gravitation to be millions of times feebler than Magnetism, as if it were

a residual action, due to deterioration, under haphazard arrangement of the atoms.
In other respects Gravitation is analogous to Magnetism, since, as Airy
points out, Cosmical Magnetism seems to be one of the most general phenomena,
in Nature. Moreover, whatever is due to the systematized action of a few atoms
must, by Newton's Rules of Philosophy, be ascribed also to the vast majority of
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF 'UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 129

atoms having a purely haphazard arrangement, and thus giving a central action, but
no action in respect to poles.
We conclude, therefore, that since Magnetism is one kind of attraction, and
definitely shown to he due to Waves, Gravitation as another kind of attraction must
be ascribed to the same cause, in accordance with Newton's Second Rule of Rea-
soning in Philosophy, that "to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible,

assign the same causes." (Principia, Lib. III).

Now since the proof of the nature of Magnetism appears to be incontestible,
it is not easy to see how this argument, based on Newtonian principles, can be
evaded. But in order to decrease the possibiUty of such evasion, we have care-

fully investigated the nature of the disturbances operative in the Fluctuations

of the Moon's Mean Motion, partially described in Bulletin No. 1, and since
fuUy confirmed in Bulletins No. 4 and No. 5. If these most enigmatical gravi-
tative disturbances can be explained by the recognized laws of Wave Action and
by that cause alone, — as we have shown, — then obviously we have at once the
strongest mathematical and physical grounds for denying the possibility of any
other explanation of the phenomena of Universal Gravitation.
The Fluctuations of the Moon's mean motion thus become an experimentum
crucis as to the true nature of the attractive force of Gravitation.
From the mere fact that a magnet is surrounded by an infinite system of
waves, — which by the observed attraction and repulsion are proved to pen-
etrate the spheres of activity of all other magnets, — we infer that if Gravity
also be due to wave action, a similar interpenetration of gravitative influence
should occur, each body extending its attractive force of gravitation into the
sphere of activity of every other body. Now the researches of Sir Isaac New-
ton for determining the law of gravitation from the celestial motions established
the reality of this interpenetration of gravitative influence through aU the celes-
tial systems then known. And Newton's early conclusions have been amply
confirmed by the much more refined researches of the past two centuries.
Each body therefore emits an infinite system of waves from its atoms, and
the waves travel in all directions with the velocity of light. The waves from
the Sun enter the spheres of influence of the several planets, and those from the
planets and satellites likewise enter that of the Sun and of each other mutually.

It is from this mutual interpenetration of waves, propagated spherically from

these several centers, that the physical forces arise which govern the motions of the

planets in their orbits.

For in Bulletin No. 2 we have shown that when the rotations in the waves from
the secondary magnet undo the rotations of the wave elements in the waves from the
130 DEFINITE CONFIKMATION OF fl'HE DISCOVERY OF THE

'primary magnet, the stress in the intervening medium decreases, the medium con-
tracts, and thus draws the bodies together. It is very much the same way with the

waves from the heavenly bodies which 'produce Universal Gravitation. As the waves
from each body encounter waves from all other bodies, they mutually interpenetrate,
and the contraction of the medium is greatest* in direct line with the other bodies —
thus generating the very forces required for governing the heavenly motions.
These forces always act in right Unes, across free space, and thus operate to
curve the planetary and cometary motions at aU points of their orbits: which
immediately justifies and indeed requires the denial of the mystical view of Ein-
stein that Gravitation is "not a force," but "a property of space." Nothing
could be more misleading than such an unauthorized inference. Indeed it is

doubtful if a more deceptive physical doctrine ever became current among men!
It is nothing less than amazing that such indistinctness of ideas, on the chief force

of Nature, should be prevalent in the Royal Society, to which Newton's immortal

discoveries were communicated.

II Electrodynamic Waves from Opposite Directions Necessarily Op-

erate TO Decrease the Stress in the Medium, Thus Producing
Tension between Two Heavenly Bodies Such as the Sun and Earth

1. From either body an unlimited number of electrodynamic waves wiU be

propagated in the form of the longer vibrations of the atoms: and on the average
as many of these waves will rotate right-handed as left-handed. For outside
of the planes of their equators, the waves wiU not be flat, but helicoidal.

2. Right-handed waves from S wiU combine with apparent left-handed

waves from E, and thus operate to reduce the stress in the medium between the
two bodies. In hke manner left-handed waves from S wiU combine with apparent
right-handed waves from E, thus making the whole of the waves, in two antago-
nistic groups, more or less operative to decrease the stress.

3. Accordingly, whichever way the waves from either body may rotate,
as seen receding from that body, they wiU encounter waves rotating in the opposite
sense as seen coming from the other body. And thus they each tend to undo the
stress in the medium due to the oppositely directed system of waves, with apparent
contrary direction of rotation. The stress in the medium between the two bodies

* In their mutual interpenetration the waves have a relative velocity which here becomes

double the Velocity of Light, so that there is maximum decrease of stress and maximum tension
along the lines joining the bodies, as in the observed phenomenon of Universal Gravitation.
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 131

is thus reduced by the interpenetration of waves; and hence the medium tends
to contract and draw the bodies together,

4. Yet it is important to notice that beyond the two bodies the direction of
rotation of the waves from the other body changes sign, and the effect is to increase

the stress in this external region of space. Here the effect is to cause the medium to
expand; and this external pressure thus aids the internal tension in holding the masses
together. The phenomenon of gravitation requires unbroken continuity, for the
internal and external equilibrium of the medium, and this is how it is effected.

5. We readily see that just as both right-handed and left-handed rotating

light waves may issue from either body, — as actually observed in the Theory
of Light, — so also from either body oppositely directed or like directed electro-
dynamic waves may travel, without mutual interference, but with changes of
stress. Oppositely rotating waves from the two bodies .combine to reduce the
stress between them, thus causing contraction and thereby developing pulling
in what we call forces, acting in right lines connecting the two masses.

6. In Figure 1 (p. 132) we have an illustration of the electrodynamic waves

propagated from the Sun and Earth, and by their mutual interpenetration un-
doing the stress of the medium between the masses, but increasing it beyond. This
causes the medium to tend to contract between the masses, which develops tension,
while external to the bodies there is simultaneous increase of stress, and thus in-

crease of pressure, which supports the internal tension in holding the bodies together.

7. The interpenetration of the waves is also mechanically illustrated by

the pair of interlocked corkscrews below. In the mutual undoing of the stress, the

medium tends to contract and pull, giving a mechanical effect on E and S similar to the
pulling on the bases of the interlocked corkscrews when they are rotated, and their

interlocked helices are put under tension.

8. The waves thus interlock and the rota-

helices of the interpenetrating
tions of the elements antagonize everywhere between S and E. The effect is like
that of screwing the points of two corkscrews together. When thus interlocked the
movement of either screw will draw the other end on; so that if the bases were fixed,
the helices of the interlocked screws would become stretched to a high tension, like the

whirling filaments of the oether constituting the interpenetrating helicoidal waves

Sun and
between the Earth. The average tendency for each set of waves is to
undo somewhat the stress due to the other. In interpenetrating, the two sets
of oppositely directed waves thus mutually reduce the stress, the medium tends
to contract, and the result is a tension along the line SE.
132 DEFINITE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

'73

01
VvS^

-a
OS

^--.\

d
OS
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 133

From the figure we easily see how this tension arises in the case of flat waves;
and now we find that the same tendency wiU hold for the helices, but that the
power will be reduced owing to the factor depending on the cosine of an angle
which may approach but never is equal to 90°.

9. Outside of the masses the waves have a common direction, and the two
effects are cumulative as shown in Section III below. There is therefore a change
of sign in the added wave action when the waves from either body pass beyond
the other, and the two sets of waves begin to travel in the same direction.

10. Our final conclusions in regard to the decrease of stress with development

of tension between two masses, and the increase of stress with the development of pres-
sure outside of the masses, where the two sets of waves act in the same direction, may
be summarized as follows:

11. (a) The stress is decreased wherever similar and congruent waves travel

in opposite directions — each thus undoing the other's stress — as between two heaven-
ly bodies. Hence their attraction is due to tension between, excess of pressure beyond.

(b) The medium has the stress increased wherever similar and congruent
gravitational waves travel in the same direction in space. Thus outside of two celes-
tial bodies, the waves from either body support and add to the stress of the waves
due to the other.

Ill Exact Analysis of the Stresses Causing Universal Gravitation

The Mther is taken to be a corpuscular moving medium, the particles travel-

ing 1.34 times faster than Light, in accordance with the views of Maxwell and
S. ToLVER Preston, Phil. Mag., 1877, Vol. 4, pp. 206-213, 364-375; and having
such high elasticity that aU the atoms incessantly emit waves due to the corpus-
cular collisions, wave oscillations, or other transformation processes not yet fuUy
understood. All we know is that energy exists in the form of wave motion in the
Mther: and these waves are incessantly transformed by contact with, and directed
from, the atoms of matter.

1. Since Magnetism is shown to be due to electrodynamic waves emitted

by the atoms of iron and other magnetic substances, and these waves penetrate
rapidly through all bodies, it is natural to assume that Universal Gravitation is

also due to similar waves. And as the waves pervade all space, in the case of
Magnetism, so will they also in the case of Gravitation. The force exerted varies
134 DEFINITE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

as the square of the amphtude, a = - , and therefore inversely as the square of

the distance, f — -^ , as found by Newton in the Principia, 1687. Without

an extensive system of aU-pervading waves filling the universe, the resulting
forces could scarcely have the steadiness and continuity they are observed to have,
— which is indispensable to the preservation of the order of the world.

2. In entering upon an inquiry as to the way in which the waves act to

stress the medium, and thus cause the attraction of Gravitation, we consider
first a single spherical body, like the Sun. The atoms are arranged haphazard,
with their equators distributed in aU directions indifferently. The waves will

be flat in the atomic equators, but at any point p the medium will be stressed
by a preponderance of waves with rotating elements largely transverse to the line

Sp, yet there will be some atoms with flat waves in or nearly coinciding with

the line Sp. As the waves speed on there is thus a reaction towards the origin
of the waves, which may be called the central pressure in the medium, substan-
tially as conceived by Newton in the Query 21 of the Treatise on Opticks, 1721,
p. 325.

Reconciliation of the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory with Newton's View, 1721.

Newton's view that the density of the ^ther decreases towards a central
body hke the Sun may be reconciled with that here developed by remembering
that what he regarded as hydrostatic pressure we now designate by the more gen-

eral term stress. And as the wave amplitude follows the law - — the energy
,

of the reaction in the medium giving the force -^ , as in Gravitation, — we see

that Newton's view, that a diminution of pressure inversely as the distance

from the dense body would be required to explain Gravitation, can be met by
using wave amplitude for what he calls pressure. When the wave amplitude is
large, as near the attracting body, under the above law, the medium is so agitated

by the large amplitudes of the passing waves as actually to have small density.
This quite reconciles our present reasoning with that of Newton, 1721; and
we perceive that the medium is denser inversely as the wave amplitude, and there-
fore directly as the distance from the center.

3. But so long as the central mass is the only source of waves, and it is

spherical, with mass ^= 5 ^rar^ , whether homogeneous, or made up of concentric

spherical shells dm,- = 4 7ra,r,=' = 4 ttu,- {x,^ + y? -\- zf) there is perfect symme-
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 135

try of stress about the origin, at the geometrical center of figure, and the stress
is equal in aU directions. By the rotations of the elements of the medium, as
the waves pass the point p, there is a definite and steady central pressure in the
agitated medium, the intensity of the pressure depending on the number of atoms
in the mass emitting the waves.

4. This view of the stressing of the medium by waves and their reaction
wiU perfectly explain the central attraction of gravitation in such a spherical
body as the Sun. In 1875 Maxwell said that hitherto he had not been able to
imagine any cause for such a state of stress; but it is now traced to the reaction
of the receding waves, without any hypothesis, except that of electrodynamic

waves, of the type which we actually receive from the Sun. The records of "Mag-
netic Storms" show that they traverse the body of the globe with almost the
velocity of light. Hence the electrodynamic waves are known facts, and it is
shown that the larger disturbances come from the Sun, in 'periodic fluctuations,
co-periodic with the Sun spot cycle.

5. To obtain a more general view of gravitation we now pass to a system

of two bodies such as the Sun and Earth, and observe that the former perfect sym-
metry about S at once disappears, yet still exists in aU directions about the line

SE, which joins the two bodies. To investigate this new system more accurately,
we place at the center of *S the origin of co-ordinates of a system of rotating axes,
with the axis of x coinciding with the line SE, which is taken in the plane of the
Earth's orbit. Then it is evident that stresses will develop in the different regions
of space as foUows.

6. Whatever be the exact nature of the wave motion which gives rise to
Gravitation, it is evident that beyond S, as at A, the waves from E will aid those
from S. For they have a common direction of propagation, and in this direction

the waves from the two centers will compound and work in concert. Accordingly,
by the waves from E, the stress in the medium throughout the infinite space beyond
S is increased. Therefore we have for the outward passing waves of both bodies
giving combined inward reaction with steady pressure towards the center of S,

p'= p +p=:y fm^dydz + f fm^dydz (1)

Owing to this augmented stress, under the action of the two bodies, the medium
tends to expand Hke compressed India rubber, in the unlimited region beyond S, and
this pressure thus reacts to crowd S towards E.
136 DEFINITE CONPIBMATION OF THE DISCOVERT OF THE

7. For the same reasons, throughout the infinite space beyond E, as at

B, A and B being on the Une SE prolonged, we have also

=p+ =
(2) J> ' p
J jm^dydz + j jm^dydz
And here again the reaction of the stress in the infinite space beyond E tends
by the expansion to crowd E towards S. The amount of this reaction in each case

is proportional to the waves from E, and thus depends on the mass of the body E,
the wave effects of which are added to those of S. If the stress is thus propor-
tional to the mass of either body, it necessarily is proportional to the mass of both,

owing to the compounding of the waves for producing the attraction.

8. Accordingly, we divide the whole of space into three parts: the two
external parts A and B, beyond *S and E; and the internal part C, between the
two bodies. Let a plane be passed through the center of SE at right angles to
this line, and then we may imagine the central space to extend along this plane
to infinity in all directions. The supposed symmetry would hold rigorously for
equal masses; but for very unequal ones, the gravitation of S so much exceeds
that of E that the stress of S would everyivhere prevail except in a small closed
surface about E, first investigated by Dr. G. W. Hill in his celebrated Researches
in the Lunar Theory, 1877, and thus called the Hill surface about the secondary

body.

9. Temporarily neglecting, however, the limits of power of the two bodies

over the interior space, we see that the waves from *S, travehng towards E, will
meet waves from E, traveling towards S. Each wave center gives a reaction in
the medium towards that center; and in this interior region each set of waves
tends to decrease somewhat the stress due to the other body. Hence for the
interior region the stress becomes

(3) P'=P-p=Jj ssjlydz - j Jm^dydz

which agrees with the observed effects of gravitation.

10. It thus appears that the two bodies, acting from opposite centers, must
necessarily operate to decrease the stress in the interior region, between S and
E; while beyond these masses the stress is increased. The reaction of the med-
ium in the regions A and B will yield increased central pressure, along the ex-

tended fines SA and SB, and on either side of the line of symmetry SE. On the
other hand, in the region C, between S and E, there is a decrease of inward pres-
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 137

sure, as if centrifugal motion in the medium were at work about that line, giving
a tension along it, not whoUy unlike that acting along the Faraday line of force,
which causes the stress for the attraction of the opposite poles of two magnets.

IV Tension between the Masses Illustrated Graphically by the Forms

OF THE EqUIPOTENTIAL SURFACES

1. The existence of this stress between the masses is made clear to the eye
by the following figures of the surfaces of constant relative energy or equipoten-
tial surfaces about two equal stars, (cf . my Researches on the Evolution of the Stellar

Systems, Vol. II, 1910, p. 169) and about the Sun and Jove, with the masses in the

Fig. 2. Equipotential surfaces about two equal masses, such as we often find in a
typical double star.

ratio of ten to one. The mathematical theory fuUy explained

of these surfaces is

in the Researches, Vol. II, pp. 169-171, and neither the formulae nor the theory
of the forms of the surfaces need be examined here.
138 DEFINITE CONFIEMATION OP THE DISCOVERY OF THE

Fig. 3. Curves of zero relative velocity (Darwin)

This diagram illustrates the hour-glass shaped space through which the particle may move and
drop down nearer the sun or planet, till it becomes captured by one of the larger bodies.
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 139

If the two masses are unequal, we have a special system of units which gives

M+m= 1 = (1 - m) +M (4)

And the equation of the surface, referred to rotating axes, becomes (cf. A. N.
4341, p. 335)

x^ + V^ + -^^
V(x -
^^~''^
x,y + y' + z^
+
V{x -
,
xa)
^^
+y' + z'
= C (5)

Under the action of a Resisting Medium the constant C of this Jacobian

Integral increases with the time, the surface undergoes a secular contraction,
and the satellites thus become captured, and can only move about S or /, but
not about both, as the author first proved in 1909 {A.N. 4341). The late cel-
ebrated mathematician Poincare verified this conclusion, {Hypotheses Cosmogon-
iques, 1911). It was also confirmed by Professor E. W. Brown in the Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, March, 1911; and recently Mr. Harold
Jeffreys, in the Monthly Notices for March, 1917, p. 448, by an independent
process, reaches a similar result.
Now at every point of the surface of the hour-glass figure the total resultant
force is normal to the surface and directed inward. There is thus a process of con-
striction at work, under the gravitational action of the two bodies, which is less

powerful as the surfaces become more distant from the centers. The constant
of Jacobi also correspondingly decreases, as the surfaces recede and are less con-
stricted.

It is justly observed that the narrowing of the surface into an hour-glass form
between the two bodies is a visible and obvious effect of the tension in the medium.
The pressure in the medium towards the separate centers, due to the waves
propagated from those centers, thus gives tension between the bodies, tends to
narrow the surfaces of constant relative energy, or equipotential surfaces, and
gives them the forms here shown.

2. In his Article on Attraction, Ency. Brit., 1875, Maxwell expressed the

view that gravitational stress in the medium is a central pressure combined with
numerically equal tension in aU directions at right angles to the lines of gravi-
tative force. Whilst this view of a central pressure towards each attractive center,
due to the reaction of the receding gravitational waves, explains the attraction

towards the centers — occupied by matter — it does not satisfactorily account for
the attraction between separate bodies, such as the mutual gravitation between
the Sun and planets. From what is shown above it is clear that planetary action

is due to the interpenetration of waves from each mass. This stressing of the
140 DEFINITE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

medium everywhere is the corner stone of Celestial Mechanics, and involves a

tension in the medium along the line joining the centers of the attracting bodies.
Without a valid theory of the tension in the medium between the separate masses,
due to the interpenetration of the waves, with decrease of stress and consequent
contraction or tension in the medium, we cannot satisfactorily explain the phe-

nomena of Universal Gravitation.

Maxwell's statement that in the attraction of gravitation "there is a pres-
sure in the direction of the lines of force combined with a tension in all directions

at right angles to the lines of force," seems to imply that the pressure holds also
between the Sun and a planet. It is therefore important to notice that there
is relative tension in that line, but a relative increase of pressure in the medium
beyond the two masses.
The planets are thus held in their orbits about the Sun by the tension of the
medium between these bodies, and the relative increase of pressure in the infinite
medium beyond. The external pressure aids the internal tension in balancing the
centrifugal force: and thus equilibrium is secured for the stable motions of the heavenly
bodies. Let it be noticed:

(a) As Magnetism undeniably is due to an infinite system of natural waves

filling all space, and from any two magnets thus interpenetrating throughout the

whole universe, it must be inferred that Universal Gravitation depends on similar

waves, which thus likewise interpenetrate in aU points of space.

(b) The Moon's Fluctuations prove that such waves do really exist in Uni-
versal Gravitation, and are sensibly refracted, dispersed and possibly absorbed
in traversing the body of the Earth. No theory except that of electrodynamic
waves will explain mathematically and physically the phenomena of the Lunar
Fluctuations. As electrodynamic action is propagated with the velocity of Light,
it follows therefore that Universal Gravitation also travels with the velocity of
Light. It cannot possibly be instantaneous, as has been very generally assumed
since the time of Newton; and corrections for the time of propagation of gravi-

tation will be required in all future Astronomical Tables which aim at the highest
accuracy.

V. The Mutual Interpenetration of Infinite Systems of Waves: Cal-

culation OF THE Sum Total of Gravitational Wave-Energy in
THE Universe

1. About every pair of bodies we must therefore imagine a doubly infinite

system of mutually interpenetrating waves. If the elements of mass be
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 141

dnii = aidxidyidzi , dnh = (ndXidyidZi

and the wave energy due to these elements be forces of the type

where
ri2 = {x- xiY + iy- yiy + {z -2l)^ 1
(6)
r/ = (a;' - x^Y + {y' - y^Y + (2

then the element of the stress in the medium wiU be

jD =
dP
aMaf
— COSE
^
(Tifci^ai^
2— j j j j j j
dx^dy^dZidxidyidzi,
(i\
(7;

where e is the angle between the planes of the resulting rotating wave elements
or total forces.

2. And the resulting attraction is therefore

-1-00 -f-co +C0 ^-00 +00 4-00

_C0 — 00 — 00 — CO — 00 — 00

At any point of space the density of the waves is proportional to the density of
the matter in the two elements of mass from which the waves proceed. Hence
whilst the density appUes to the masses, it can also be written in the formula for
the stresses due to the waves, and we thus have a means of recognizing the bodies

from which the waves proceed in developing the total forces at any point.

3. From the above considerations it appears that the bodies of the universe
attract one another in pairs, owing to the stressing of the medium by a mutual
tension between the masses and an increase of pressure in the regions beyond them.
If the function for thesum total of the wave action be Q , and A, be the
distances above denoted by r„ we may put for brevity

dmodmi , dmodnii dmodmz .

,
dmodm„

dmidnis
* druidmi
'WKf Ai^As^
"^ ^ ^VaJ
drnxdm,,

(9)
dmodmz , ,
dmidm„

. dm„-idm„

in which the differentials of the masses show how they are combined in pairs.
142 DEFINITE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OP THE

Integrating sextuply for all space, and writing the densities ao , ai , ffa . . . . a„

for the masses, we get for the sum total of the wave action of the Universe the
result shown in the accompanying equation (10).
By using the double subscript (i, j), the resulting infinite expression may
be written more compactly in the form:

(11) < = ' '=i +« +C0 +=0 +00 +C0 +00

^^
=Zj^
i=0
J J
= —» j \
J J J J
—00 —CO —00 —00 —00
i^^-^T^-^^-^r^(^os£i,^j^dXidy(dztdxjdyjdzj]dz'dy'dz'dxdydz
\ » ^

It wiU be observed that this expression for the Sum Total of the Gravitational
Wave-Energy of the Universe, viewed as made up of an unlimited number of bodies,
thus becomes the side and diagonal of an Infinite Determinant. As remarked
above, the bodies are grouped in pairs, and each element is a sextuple Integral
between infinite limits.

It is difficult to imagine a more vivid picture of th§ intricacy of the mechan-

ism of the Physical Universe than that here presented. The action is always
propagated in right lines, across free space; and along Fermat's minimum paths,
if through solid masses, but in the free ^Ether the velocity of the wave action does
not exceed that of Light, and through cosmical bodies the speed may be con-
siderably less. The Mther appears to have such high elasticity that when waves,
as the vehicle of energy, are being transformed by contact with matter, they are re-
newed in the form of new waves appropriate to the structure of the particular atoms.
Shorter waves than those which produce Gravitation also fill the universe,
causing Heat, Light, Chemical Affinity and Molecular Forces, but they are not
discussed in the present Bulletin.

VI Astronomical Consequences of Adopting Weber's Electrodynamic

Law for the Solar System
Ever since the Law of Universal Gravitation was estabhshed by Newton,
it has been the almost unbroken rule of mathematicians to assume that the actions
of gravitational forces are instantaneous, at aU distances, and the periheha of
the planets and satellites therefore fixed in space, as first concluded from approxi-
mate data by the illustrious author of the Principia, 1687,
But if at length we recognize Weber's Electrodynamic Law as the true
Law of Nature, it will become important to notice the Astronomical Consequences
of substituting Weber's Fundamental Law of 1846 for the approximate form

of this law used by Newton.

 mo mi mz mo mi
mo mi mo
'+O:+0O-f-O5 +00+00+03
aoK^ca? (TiKi^ai^
cos £ dxody^dzodx^dy.dz^dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + C C C dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + fff fff (0 3) dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + fff f ff (0
J —J J
_
CO
J J J
— ^ -* —
or X' Cfi -i- 00
J JJ (0 , 2) ' , 4)

mi m2 mi ms mi m4

+ fff fff*^^'^^
dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + fff fff (1 ' 3) dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + fff fff (1 > 4)

m2 ms m2 m4

+ fff fff (2 , 3) dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + fff fff (2 , 4)

In this equation the full form of the sextuple integral is given only in the |

firstterm, but the abbreviations used in the other terms wiU sufficiently indicate ms mi
the manner in which the integration is to be carried out between the bodies grouped
in pairs, the limits of the integrals being always from — oo to +<». From each + /////J<^-«
mass as a center the infinite system of waves extends throughout all space,

(x', y', z'), (x, y, z); and as they everywhere interpenetrate, the sextuple integra-

tion is uniformly apphed from the masses m,-, m^, as indicated also by the sub-
scripts in the parentheses under the integral signs.
 TOO m„

dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + . . . .
+ | j j
I ( ( (0 ,n) dx'dy'dz'dxdydz

mi Mn

dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + ....+ ((( jjj(l,n) dx'dy'dz'dxdydz

I
'
mi rrin

dx'dy'dz'dxdydz + ....+ ((] j j j (2 ,n) dx'dy'dz'dxdydz

Ms m„

dx'dy'dz'dxdydz +....+ f f f f f f (^ >'"') dx'dy'dz'dxdydz

mn—l mn

+ j j j
jjj(^~l>«) dx'dy'dz'dxdydz.
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVEESAL GRAVITATION 143

The probability of the adoption of the Electrodynamic Law, in place of the

approximate form found by Newton and since used by astronomers and mathe-
maticians in the theories of the heavenly motions, has led to the suggestion that
the results, in the form of the well known progression of the line of apsides, should
be carefuUy calculated and tabulated for all the chief bodies of the Solar System.
These results should include not only the major planets, but also the very differ-

ent types of bodies represented by comets and satellites.

About the only appreciable changes which wiU be required in our Astronomi-
cal Tables are slight progressive motions of the perihelia. These consequences
are shown in the accompanying carefuUy calculated tables. They were pre-
pared in 1915, and with the following discussion communicated to Lord Rayleigh,
July 10, 1915.

Theoretical Progression of the Perihelia, According to Weber's

Electrodynamic Law
Planet
144 DEFINITE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

Periodic Comets {Continued)

Comet
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 145

Satellites of the Planets (Continued)

Satellite
146 DEFINITE CONPIEMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

This could be done by introducing w, the ratio of the actual absolute velocity
of the satellite to that of a fictitious body revolving in the same period about the
Sun:

(12)
^'=i^-^^^W^^^'
where a' and n' refer to the semi-axis major and mean motion of the fictitious

satellite revolving about the Sun, with the observed mean motion of the actual

satellite.

But the calculation becomes somewhat simpler by the use of the following

reductions. Neglecting the squares and higher powers of the eccentricity, the
velocity Vi for an intermediary planet, such as Mercury, and V for a satellite re-
volving about a planet of mass m becomes:

(13) Fi^ = - ; v = m-;

where k^ is the Gaussian constant, and the mass of the planet m is expressed as
usual in units of the Sun's mass.
Accordingly, the ratio of the forces to the two centers of attraction becomes:

Substituting this expression in the above formula (12), we get:

—
Fo FV — ao
— J —aia
fVoV a^
= =-
— e^)^mt = m[\c
,
(15) Sro' •
nit
^ ' \c ViJ ai (1
-j )
ai (1 - e=)
;

which takes the simple form

(16) ^'^' = -(Tja-(T^^^'-

Here e is the eccentricity of the satellite orbit; -^ the value of the Earth's

mean distance, in units of the mean distance of the sateUite; riit is the centennial
mean motion of Mercury; m the mass of the planet about which the satellite
revolves; and the ratio of the average velocity of the Earth's motion to the

velocity of light ^= 1 10000 log. = 2.0000000 - 10

(^J
: ,
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 147

The calculation of the centennial progression of the apsis lines of the satellite
orbits is thus very simple, and the resulting values are included in the accompany-
ing table.
As Newton points out in the Principia, the form of the law of attraction em-
ployed by him gives fixed perihelia and periplaneta. In Weber's law there is

a slight progression, becoming larger with the orbital velocity or with slowness of
the propagation of the attractive force across space. In our calculations we
have always taken c = velocity of light, because in the Electrodynamic Theory
all other velocities are excluded.
It wiU be seen that the perihelion of Mercury is the only outstanding motion
of sensible magnitude. With a theoretical centennial progression of S® = 14". 51,

the oustanding difference of about 40", between theory and observation first

found by Leverrier 1859 and since confirmed by Newcomb and others, is

in

thus reduced to about 25" per century. This is a decided improvement in one
of the most difiicult problems of Celestial Mechanics.
The fifth sateUite of Jupiter, discovered by Professor Barnard in 1892, has
been found by observation to have a motion of its perijove of about 900° per
annum, owing to the effect of the large oblateness of the figure of the planet.

Thus, whilst the theoretical centennial progression of the perijove is now found
to be 4". 23, it would take the finest observations over at least a hundred years
before an effect so minute as 4". 23 in a century, with a total gravitational pro-
gression of 90000° = 324000000", could become sensible, if indeed it ever could
be recognized by observational test.

The motion of the Lunar Perigee is very accurately known, and at first sight
one might suppose it would shed some light on the propagation of gravitation

in time. Our eminent Lunar Theorist, Professor E. W. Brown, assures me that

the outstanding difference between observation and theory is less than 15" per
century, and most of this to be accounted for by slight admissible changes in
the adopted oblatenesses of the Earth and Moon. On calculating the progression
depending on Weber's law, I find it to be only S» = 0". 00637 per century

a residual so very minute that it could not accumulate to sensible magnitude in

less than 100,000 years!

Accordingly, it appears that neither the satellites nor the comets offer the
slightest chance of an outstanding observational difference between the laws of
Weber and of Newton. For this purpose we must depend on the motion of
the perihelion of Mercury alone. Yet as this outstanding difference teUs decidedly
in favor of Weber's law, as do also the periodic fluctuations of terrestrial mag-
netism — otherwise quite unintelligible — one is left with a clearly defined
148 DEFINITE CONFIEMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

choice between the electrodynamic law and the traditional law without physical
significance. To those who believe genuine physical causes underlie the operations
of Nature, the decision necessarily will be in favor of the Electrodynamic Law.

VII Applications of Weber's Electrodynamic Law to the Motions of

Binary Stars*

Actual calculation of the motions of the perihelia of the planets and comets,
and of the periplaneta of the satellites of the solar system shows that there are
no outstanding phenomena of our system which enable us to discriminate obser-
vationaUy between the effects of the ordinary law of gravitation, as given by
Newton, and the Electrodynamic Law developed by Weber, except in the single
case of the progression of the perihelion of Mercury, where Weber's law reduces
the outstanding difference to about 25" per century, instead of the 40" per cen-
tury found by observation from the Newtonian Law.
In order to take account also of every possible criterion offered by the sidereal
universe for throwing light on the fundamental law of Nature, I have carefully
examined the best determined physical systems among the Binary Stars, and
found that no contradiction of Weber's Law may be anticipated from our studies
in the sidereal heavens.
If Universal Gravitation be an Electrodynamic Phenomenon, as set. forth
in the memoir on this subject, dated Dec. 10, 1914, it is remarkable that the
enormous velocity of propagation of this force, with the speed of light, enables

the double stars to revolve in their orbits without disclosing motions of their
periastra which could become sensible to observation in less than something like

100,000 years. This may be investigated as follows:

It is easy to demonstrate that for any Binary System of combined mass,
M -\- m, the formula for the secular progression of the periastron becomes:

(17) »--©^?--
where e is the eccentricity of the orbit of the Binary, — is the ratio of the Earth's

mean distance to the mean distance of the components of the Binary, nt the mean
motion of the Binary in a Julian century, and -7 the same constant which was

used in the solar system. Log. = 2.0000000 - 10 .

(18)
(J^J

* Extract from a letter to Lord Ratleigh, dated March 25, 1916.

 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVEESAL GRAVITATION 149

The accompanying table gives the necessary elements for a dozen stellar

systems. The accuracy of the data is unequal in different cases, owing to the
minuteness of the annual parallaxes, and the difficulty inherent in measuring
such small angular displacements. Yet in general the parallaxes are dependable,

in giving us approximate absolute dimensions of the Binary orbits and the com-
bined masses of their components.
In a few cases, such as 40 02 Eridani and Castor, the geometrical elements
of the orbits are not yet defined with great accuracy; and in the case of Algol
and Capella I have taken the eccentricity as 0.10, in conformity with the general

Table of Data on Binary Stars

Name of Star
150 DEFINITE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

but the masses are larger than that of the Sun and Uranus, and the eccentric-
ities much higher than those of our major planets.
The larger Binary masses and their higher eccentricities both contribute to
the augmentation of the motion of the periastra; yet it will be found that the
theoretical motions here given are comparable to the theoretical motions of the
perihelia of our major planets. In the outer parts of our solar system and among
most of the Binary Stars, these motions are so very minute as to lie hopelessly
beyond the reach of observation.
.In the case of close Binaries, like Algol and Capella, the motions of the peri-
astra are indeed large, — namely 3292" and 66" per Julian century respectively,
yet the components are so close together that the orbits are whoUy invisible in
our most powerful telescopes, and thus considerable uncertainty attaches to
their geometrical elements.
Accordingly, it appears that the orbits of wide systems like Sirius and Alpha
Centauri are weU defined, but the motions of the periastra are slow. In such
wide systems the attractive forces are comparatively feeble. Close systems,
like Algol and Capella, and S Equulei, revolve rapidly under enormous central
forces and have motions of the periastra which are comparatively rapid; yet
the orbits are either wholly invisible in our telescopes or so poorly defined,
owing to the difficulty of separating the components telescopically, that an
uncertainty of several whole degrees usually attaches to the position of the
periastron.
The difficulty of fixing the geometrical elements of the orbits of Binaries
with great accuracy results inherently from the great distances of the fixed stars

from the Earth; and it is not easy to see how it can be overcome. It is true
that Algol, Z Herculis, and some other variables disclose a slow shift of their eclipse

paths, but as we cannot see how many unseen bodies are perturbing the systems
or what oblatenesses of figure the component stars may have for producing analo-

gous effects, it is clear that such systems offer very little chance for an observa-
tional criterion which will enable us to detect a progressive motion of the periastron
depending on Weber's Electrodynamic Law.
Accordingly, it is probable that the well defined excess in the motion of Mer-
cury's perihelion wiU long remain our most useful observational criterion. It
is doubtful if any corresponding criterion in the stellar universe could be established
inside of thousands of years. Thus the periastron of 85 Pegasi would have a pro-
gressive motion of 43" in 100,000 years, and the closer binary B Equulei would
require about thirty-eight thousand years to develop an equal progression of
the line of apsides. But double star orbits are so minute compared to the large
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVEKSAL GRAVITATION 151

and well defined orbit of Mercury that it seems well-nigh hopeless to search for a
criterion of Weber's Electrodynamic Law among the fixed stars.
It is beheved that these calculations may be useful, in that they fully author-
ize us to abandon unconditionally the traditional view of fixed perihelia, which
has come down from the days of Newton. It appears to be incontestible that
universal gravitation is an Electrodynamic Phenomenon and thus propagated
across space with the velocity of light. The resulting progression of the perihelia
and periastra is so small that only very slight corrections to the Newtonian law
are required to enable it to represent all the phenomena of the heavens. Yet,
as the cause of universal gravitation long remained unknown and proved utterly
bewildering to all investigators, I venture to think that the Electrodynamic
Theory may justly deserve the attention of natural philosophers.

VIII The Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Universal Gravitation the

ONLY Theory Admissible.

1. In order to judge of the possibility of other causes than wave action

we should first recall the Cause of Magnetism which is so general a phenomenon
in the physical world, and of which the cause is definitely made out.

(a) In Bulletin No. 2 the property of Magnetism is traced to the action

of flat waves proceeding from the atoms, and all known magnetic phenomena
are harmonized and co-ordinated.

(b) In Bulletin No. 3, Cosmical Magnetism is traced to similar waves

proceeding from the atoms, which are therefore of sufficient length to traverse

the celestial bodies, but apparently with considerable loss of efficiency.

(c) It may be that the waves operative in Gravitation are the longest of
the electrodynamic waves, but as those operative in Magnetism can be shown
experimentally to penetrate all physical masses, it would not seem that there
could be much difference in the wave length, if any.

(d) It will not do to deny that some gravitational waves may be so short as
to be largely cut down in traversing the Earth; for the Moon's Fluctuations show
that the decrease of the Sun's effective energy is experienced near the Earth's
shadow, when the Sun's gravitational action is exerted through the body of the

globe. There may be a great deal more gravitational wave energy rendered in-
effective in masses than we heretofore have been aware of. As the figures of
152 DEFINITE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

the heavenly bodies are spheroidal this decrease would be largely symmetrical in
all directions, and would not be recognizable from the observations heretofore
available.

2. If Magnetism is universal in Matter, — as Faraday's experiments showed,

— and its cause definitely traceable to waves, as shown in Bulletin No. 2 — then
it will follow that Gravitation also is due to similar eledrodynamic waves. For as
waves will explain all the observed phenomena, we are not authorized by New-
ton's Second Rule of Philosophy to ascribe similar effects in the way of attraction

to different causes.

3. According to Modern Physics there are two distinct entities in the Uni-
verse: Matter and Energy, both indestructible, yet both transmutable into vari-
ous forms. Maxwell wave motion hah the energy is poten-
points out that in
tial, half kinetic, and thus the energy which pervades themedium when waves
are in propagation is evenly balanced. It is only when wave energy undergoes

transformation by contact with matter that inequality in the two types of energy
develops. It seems to be matter alone that has the power to transform the energy

in waves, receiving some wave energies and emitting others.

We do not yet understand the entire mechanism involved in this transforma-

tion. But since Light and Heat long ago were shown to be due to waves in the
iEther, and now in Bulletin No. 2 Magnetism is traced to the same agency, by
perfectly definite proof, it is natural to hold that Universal Gravitation also is

due to the same physical cause. This foUows from general principles of con-
tinuity, and besides is supported by very specific phenomena in the Lunar
Fluctuations which appear to admit of but one interpretation.

5. The phenomena of Cosmical Magnetism which show "Magnetic Storms"

to occur simultaneously throughout our globe and to be traceable to prominence
outbreaks and other disturbances in the Sun, furnish direct and obvious proof
that such electrodynamic waves come from the Sun incessantly. Owing to the
interruption of the flowby motion, the waves are thrown into a violent agitation
when solar mass-movements are in progress. Any denial of this physical re-
lationship, made obvious through the passage of electrodynamic waves between

the Sun and Earth, is wholly untenable.

6. Accordingly, since the Cosmical Magnetism of the Sun and Moon admit
of explanation only on the hypothesis of interpenetrating waves traveling with
the Velocity of Light, and conforming to Weber's Law, we cannot admit that
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 153

Newton's law is other than a close approximation. The old view that Gravi-
tation is not propagated in time is no longer to be entertained.

7. It is obvious from the physical cause of Magnetism, and of Eledrodynamic

Action, estabhshed in Bulletin No. 2, and such cosmical phenomena as the
Magnetic Tide depending on the Moon, discussed in Bulletin No. 3, that Weber's
Electrodynamic Law governs the material universe. The celebrated equation
of Laplace, for external space,

a? + ap"
"^
"a? " ^ ' ^^^^

which holds rigorously true for the Newtonian Law, is only a close approxima-
tion under the Law of Nature where V^y = a, (20)

a series differing from zero. Whittaker's general solution of the equation of

Laplace (Monthly Notices, 1902, p. 617) obviously has corresponding limitations.

8. In like manner the more general equation of PoissoN for the interior
space of bodies
dW , dW , dW "^"'^'
.

a^+ aF+ 3^ = ^^^^

also ceases to hold rigorously true, and becomes

VW = - 47ro-/3 (22)

where ^ is a series differing from unity.

The modifications of the equations ofLaplace and Poisson required by
the use of Weber's Law depend on the second and third terms of the formula
for the force:

„ ^ W 5 1
_ 1 fdr\ 2 2r ^ )

which represent the Induction and the change of the Induction respectively. Owing
to an effect Uke that of Doppler's Principle, relative motion must always dis-

turb the otherwise steady wave-field about every body.

9. When a body such as a comet undergoes a very rapid motion towards

the Sun, as in approaching perihelion, this Inductive effect very may become
large and probably will explain much
sudden increase in bright-
of the observed

ness. In the same way Binary Stars revolving in very eccentric orbits may fre-
quently develop sufficient luminosity from this changing Inductive Action to
become notably variable.
154 DEFINITE CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCOVERT OF THE

In the course of time it will be an interesting question to find out what pro-
portion of our Variable Stars may be explained in this way: at present we only
know that the body of the phenomena of the light changes indicate dependence
on orbital motion.

10. The eruptions of solar prominences frequently are sudden enough, and
involve such large masses of matter in relative motion, as respects the Earth, that
the observed "Magnetic Storms," Aurorse, "Earth Currents," etc., should occasion
no surprise to the investigator. Thus whilst to the penetrating mind of Gauss
the Aurora was a rdthselhafter Erscheinung, — puzzling appearance — it is to
those who correctly interpret Weber's Law a necessary consequence of the Funda-
mental Electrodynamic Law which governs the physical universe.
It may be useful to emphasize certain results of these researches by the fol-

lowing analysis of the Cause of Gravitation.

11. The Lunar Fluctuations are explicable only by the refraction, dispersion

and perhaps absorption of gravitational wave-energy. This physical action

gives a new distribution of the waves in space, and the attractive force exerted is

correspondingly modified, owing to the interposition of the Earth in the path of

the Sun's gravitational waves.

12. If this argument be valid it foUows that gravitation is explicable only

by the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory. Thus the Lunar Fluctuations become an
experimentum cruds for establishing the undulatory nature of gravitation.

13. We might experimentally determine if the waves of a magnet suffer a

similar refraction, dispersion, etc., when they are made to pass through an arti-

ficial globe made up of layers becoming denser towards the center — for example,

rock on the outside, and metals such as zinc, iron, copper, lead, within.

14.Such an experiment would be delicate, no doubt, but it easily could be

made in our laboratories, and owing to the great interest attaching to it, ought
to be tried very carefuUy.

15. In his Opticks, 1721, Query 21, p. 326, Newton says that small magnets
are stronger in proportion to their bulk than large ones: which shows by high authority
— as is also recognized hy modern writers — that some of the wave-energy is ren-

dered ineffective when the transmission of the magnetic force is through a dense mass.
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 155

16. This remark of Newton conforms to our present views entirely, since
we know by the Moon's actual Fluctuations that the Sun's gravitation is decreased
in efficiency by transmission through the solid body of the Earth.

17. This acknowledged decrease of effective magnetism by transmission through

solid magnetizable bodies, and the decrease of the Sun's effective gravitation by
transmission through the body of the Earth, — shown by the observed Fluctua-
tions of the Moon's mean motion, — would seem to point to a general decrease in
the efficiency of Gravitation when it has to be exerted through other matter.
Thus there would he more matter in the interior of all the heavenly bodies than is indi-

cated by their power of attraction on external masses, such as planets, comets, sat-

ellites.

18. Now the masses of the Sun, planets and satellites, are calculated from
their observed actions on neighboring bodies; and if a screening of Gravitation
occurs, the effect of such decrease in the force of attraction wiU be the same upon
all external masses, and we cannot discover it by observation. Thus, up to the
present time the researches of astronomers throw but little light on the amount
of matter within the heavenly bodies. They have simply calculated the amount
of matter within these masses which may make itself effective by external attrac-
tion; and the amount of matter actually there may be considerably larger than
we have heretofore believed,

19. The remark of Newton near the close of the General Scholium to the
Principia (1713), that "gravitation must proceed from a cause that penetrates
to the very centers of the Sun and planets, without suffering the least diminution

of its force," should therefore be accepted with great reserve. For at last we
seem to have proof, drawn from the Lunar Fluctuations, that the efficiency of
gravitation by transmission through solid masses, just
is decreased as in the case
of Magnetism mentioned by Newton in the Opticks, 1721, p. 326.

20. In the same paragraph of the General Scholium, Newton says that
gravity "operates not according to the quantity of the surfaces of the particles
upon which it acts (as mechanical causes use to do), but according to the quantity
of the solid matter which they contain, and propagates its virtue on all sides to
immense distances, decreasing always in the duplicate ratio of the distances.
Gravitation towards the Sun is made up out of the gravitation towards the several
particles of which the body of the Sun is composed; and in receding from the Sun
decreases accurately in the duplicate proportion of the distances as far as the
156 DEFINITE CONFIKMATION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE

orb of Saturn, as evidently appears from the quiescence of the aphelia of the planets;
nay, and even to the remotest aphelia of the comets, if these aphelia are also
quiescent. But hitherto I have not been able to discover the cause of these prop-
erties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses."

21. From the above considerations it appears that a decrease of gravitation,

when it is transmitted through solid masses, is consistent with the reasoning of
Newton; for this does not modify the law of distances, in surrounding space,

on which the calculations of the motions of the planets and comets depend. It

is only when a satellite passes near the shadow of a planet, that a sensible differ-

ence can be observed; and hence the high importance attached to the discovery
of the cause of the Fluctuations of the Moon's mean motion.

22. Up to the present time no other known celestial phenomenon has been
available for throwing a clear light on the profound mystery so long attaching
to the Cause of Universal Gravitation. In the case of the Moon's Fluctuations
this illumination is possible only by virtue of the great accuracy of the modern
Lunar Theory, as the result of two centuries of laborious research by the most
eminent mathematicians. For these reasons the present researches on the Cause
of Universal Gravitation deserve the earnest consideration of astronomers and
natural philosophers. It seems that at least a beginning has been made in un-
folding some of the deepest mysteries of the Universe! Are we not about to
obtain a distinct vision of things never before contemplated by mortal eye since
the creation of the globe?
It is weU known that Gauss chose as his motto: "Thou, Nature, art my god-
dess; to thy laws my services are bound." (Shakespeare, King Lear, Act I,

Scene II.)

If others seek to foUow Gauss in the sagacious suggestion herein contained,

and thus trace the observed phenomena of Nature to their underlying Electro-
dynamic Law, they will be able to see more clearly than heretofore has been
possible the connection between such purely physical phenomena as Magnetism
and the stupendous Gravitational Forces which control the motions of the
planets in their orbits.

Conclusion

Sir Isaac Newton left the problem of the Cause of Universal Gravitation
unsolved, and up to within a few years the most conflicting views of the nature

of Gravitation have prevailed. On the one hand certain eminent authorities,

 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION 157

either from habit or the force of venerable tradition, continue to adhere to the

Mediaeval conception of Action at a Distance. The French astronomers Tisserand

and PoiNCARE, on the other hand, have followed Newton, Faraday and Maxwell,
and plainly recognize that there can be no action across space without a medium
for communicating the Yet they admit that nothing is known as to how
action.

gravitation is propagated, or by what process physical forces are generated. This

is about the view taken by Helmholtz, Kelvin, Darwin, Larmor, Newcomb

and Hill; and so recently as 1915 the English mathematicians Jeans and
Eddington have expressed the view that nothing is known as to the mechanism
involved in electrical action through the aether, or the Cause of Gravitation.
Now it is evident that some active influence emanates from bodies to cause
their Mutual Gravitation. In the fourth letter to Bentley, Feb. 25, 1692-3, Sir
Isaac Newton says we cannot imagine such an active influence to proceed from
"inanimate brute matter," and to act at a distance through a void. This Mediaeval
idea likewise fails to explain the phenomena of Magnetism and of Cosmical Mag-
netism, such as the Moon's Magnetic Tide, and the "Magnetic Storms," occurring
simultaneously throughout the world.
Since Magnetism plainly is due to Electrodynamic Waves, it is obvious
that the only way we can explain Gravitation is through similar waves in the cether,

which appears to be so highly elastic a medium that all matter has the power to
transform the waves now existing into others appropriate to the kind of matter

acting. In our present ignorance of the atomic structures we cannot explain

the full process by which this transformation occurs, or how the generation of
the new waves arises.

But to us it is enough that such Electrodynamic Waves really exist, are

shown to arise from the atoms, and to be propagated from them according to
the laws which we have explained, and abundantly serve to account for the physi-

cal properties of Magnetism and of Universal Gravitation. Thus they indicate

the correlation of aU natural forces and tend to harmonize and co-ordinate the
chief phenomena of Nature.

It is not our present purpose to enter into any discussion of the history of

the Wave-Theory. But we think special attention should be directed to the

earliest ideas of Robert Hooke on this subject, 1671, {Posthumous Works

Dr.
of Robert Hooke, edited by R. Waller, London, 1705, pp. 181-190).
In view of what is now shown of the relationship between Electrodynamics
and Gravitation, we must regard every Sun, Planet, and Satellite as a center of
Electrodynamic Waves. Owing to this agitation, the density of the cether in-

creases outwardly inversely as the wave amplitude, and thus directly as the dis-
158 DISCOVERY OF THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION

tance. The waves stress the medium and thus give the central pressure required
by Newton in 1721 for explaining Universal Gravitation.

Accordingly, it appears that after the lapse of nearly two centuries the early
ideas of Newton have triumphed! Yet there will stiU remain many problems
Above all it is necessary to diffuse a knowledge of
requiring further elucidation.
the Electrodynamic Wave-Theory of Gravitation among investigators, in order
that it may receive adequate attention from men of science working from different
points of view. Investigators may thus advantageously co-operate in extending
Kepler and Newton; and by connecting the Planetary Forces
the discoveries of
with those of Magnetism and Electrodynamics, develop a Modern Theory of the
Physical Causes underlying the Laws of Nature. Such an extension of the exist-
ing Physical Sciences is an urgent desideratum of our time.
If the way to this exalted goal does not yet seem entirely clear and inviting,
let us remember that the ascent of a range of mountains whose summits seem
to near the stars has often appeared difficult and forbidding; yet also recall that
when a path is once opened, the explorer who dares to persist will finally attain
the dizzy heights above the clouds, and be rewarded with a wider View of Nature,
which is always an ultimate object of research in the sublimer portions of Human
Knowledge.

Starlight on Loutre,
Montgomery City, Missouri, June 22, 1917.

Issued September 24, 1917.

PUBLISHERS:

THOS. p. NICHOLS & SON CO., Lynn, Mass., U. S. A.

WM. ttTSSLEY & SON, London © A. HERMANN ET FILS, Paris